Page 83 of A Potion for Passion

She was getting more nervous by the second.

The night remained tranquil, and no alien or fearsome noises reached her ears. A hound bayed somewhere, but it wasn’t the sound of fear or anger. A shepherd whistled to his dog in a distant field as he headed home for the night, and a tawny owl kee-wicked from one of the oaks behind the cottage. Even so, a wash of foreboding stole over her.

In minutes, Lawrence was back, carrying a covered lantern in his hand. “Nothing,” he told her.

“Are you sure?” Despite the comfortable security of his presence, and the innocent stillness of the night, she couldn’t shake her growing sense of dread.

“I’m sure. Trust me. I’m quite experienced at locating people in the dark. It comes of a lifetime essentially living out of doors.”

“Or getting up to felonious deeds in the dead of night,” she suggested wryly.

“Let’s not raise that issue again. You’ve already made your feelings very clear on that score.”

“But—”

He stopped her protest with a kiss.

Very effectively.

When he finally released her lips, he said, “Well, we have a light, I have Belle, and there is moonlight enough. I’ll take you to Major Wilberforce at Oakwood Grange. You’ll be safer with him.”

“Do you mean to throw yourself on his mercy, and turn King’s Evidence?” Hope fizzed through her like heady champagne.

“You know I can’t— Wait, what’s that?”

Before she could register her disappointment, she was hauled off the path into the shadow of a thick laurel bush growing by the front door. He thrust the shaded lantern into her hands with a whispered command to hide it behind her back, then stood in front of her, shielding her with his body.

The blood sang in her ears, and she scarce dared breathe.

He stood still and silent as a stone, and as her pulse gradually calmed, she finally heard what had caught his attention.

The sound of stealthy footfalls approaching the cottage gate.