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The boy’s eyes narrowed in speculation and greed.
Olivia gasped, and spluttered, fisting a hand on her hip. “And you call me reckless? Have you not read Samuel Johnson’s A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland? It is never wise to travel with a fortune because of fellows like this,” she said, waving her hand toward the highwayman. “Also—”
“Be quiet,” Tobias said.
She glared at him but obeyed.
“I may be wantin’ more than what ye offerin,” the boy said with a touch of uncertainty.
“That is not possible.”
The boy waved toward Olivia. “Or I may have to do something unpleasant to her,” he said, taking a threatening step in her direction.
“That would not be wise,” Tobias said, going cold. The boy was now pointing the pistol in the direction of his countess. Why the hell had Tobias agreed to take her with him? Who the hell would have expected a bandit on this less traveled and remote country road?
“Listen ’ere—”
Tobias allowed his dagger to fly from his hand with precision. It buried itself in the boy’s arm, and with a bellow, he dropped the pistol. Before he could recover, Tobias was on him. He kicked his legs from underneath him, straddled him, and dragged off the makeshift mask.
“Christ.”
He couldn’t be more than fourteen summers.
“Help me,” the boy pleaded toward Olivia.
She swiftly ran over. Without Tobias saying anything, she grabbed the cloth the boy had used to cover his face and tied it around his wound. He wailed, his arm twitching.
“Shut up,” Tobias growled.
“There is a very large knife sticking out of his shoulder,” she said faintly. “And he is in pain, Tobias.”
“He deserves to be in pain. He is very fortunate I did not kill him. In fact, I may very well slit his throat for inconveniencing me.”
The boy wailed even louder.
She shot him an irritated look. “Hush now,” she said sympathetically. “He does not mean it.”
Tobias glared at her. “If you’d stayed where I told you, this would have been avoided.”
“I was saving you,” she gasped.
Anger and annoyance snapped through him in equal measure. “No, you were being reckless and rebellious!”
Her eyes flashed. “I saw this…this…I have no clue what he is, creeping in the direction of where you headed and I decided to warn you. He looked very alarming with the cloth over his face and the pistol in his hand, I could not allow him to come upon you unaware. My only thoughts were of protecting you, Tobias! Not deliberately being willful and…reckless. Somehow he noticed me, and well, you know the rest.”
Protecting me? Though his heart jerked at the notion, he was not mollified. The fear that had torn through his heart when he’d realized the bounder had a pistol pointed to her heart had been a brutal punch to his system. “He could have shot you…or done worse, countess. Abducted you, robbed and slit your throat before you could sound an alert. But I can see it was truly ridiculous of me to expect you to act in an obedient or ladylike manner.”
It was never more evident to him that he could not truly rely on his wife to behave in the expected manner. Her temper was too uncertain, and she was too willful.
She winced, and if he was not mistaken, hurt darkened her eyes.
“I’m bleeding to death here,” the boy grumbled. “A wee bit of attention on me wouldn’t be bad.”
Tobias hauled him up quite roughly, and the boy swayed.
His wife scrambled to her feet. “What are you going to do with him?”
“Take him to the law.”
