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‘Adequate. Well, gentlemen? What are you waiting for? Ride!’ Reaching around her to grab the reins, I gave a snap of my wrist. ‘Gee-up!’
Our equine transport accelerated immediately, rushing off across the plain, sending snow flying up right and left. The ice crystals danced in the air, and they were…
Beautiful?
It was simply frozen water. How could a phase of matter be beautiful?
Instinctively, my arm tightened around her.
Thunder enveloped us. Glancing to the side, I saw my men catching up and surrounding us from every angle. There were dozens of men around us, not to speak of the horses, and the animals that hid in the forest. But right then and there, it felt like the only two people existing in this world were she and I.
And that’s an objectively stupid feeling. Most importantly, because it is a feeling. Stop! Think, don’t feel!
It suddenly didn’t appear as easy as it always had. Not with her in my arms. I was just about to try and start to fight down my irrational emotions—then she turned, and looked up at me.
‘How did you find me?’
By removing anything in my way. Permanently.
‘I had sent one of my mother’s servants with a letter to Newcastle requesting reinforcements from my agents and additional hired personnel as soon as Dalgliesh arrived. They arrived shortly after…after you…’
‘After I disappeared.’
My head jerked once in the affirmative.
‘The room didn’t look as if there had been a struggle. I surmised that the maid had been in league with Dalgliesh…’ -the little fool— ‘…and that she would be aiming to make a quick getaway after getting paid. So I sent three of my men to lie in wait on the road to the closest port city, and another three on the road south to London. It wasn’t long before she appeared.’
‘You have her?’
Another woman’s voice might have contained concern or fear for another female, even though that female had stabbed her in the back. Not her. All I could hear was determination for vengeance.
Maybe she’s not such an illogical choice after all.
‘Karim does. He’s explaining the errors of her ways to her.’
‘Oh.’ A corner of her mouth quirked up and I felt the sudden urge to reach out and touch it. ‘Oh dear.’
‘Indeed.’
I didn’t reach out. Instead, I just held her. I held her as we raced across the snowy fields, in the cold, on horses that had cost a lot of money, with people who had cost a lot of money to hire, all to retrieve a woman who could bring me no possible monetary gain, and…and I had never been…
What was the word?
Happier.
What in Mammon’s name is going on?
‘Bridge ahead, Sir!’ a voice suddenly tore me from my thoughts. Glancing up, I saw one of my men pointing ahead, at a small bridge spanning a half-frozen river. A bridge I hadn’t noticed.
Again!
Since when did I have to have other people alert me to my surroundings?
Simple. Since her.
It was correct. She was interfering with my mind. She was turning everything on its head. First my office, then my life, and now, my…my…
I had to get rid of her!
