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“I don’t know the answer to that,” he said against the crown of her hair.
She expected more fear to race down her spine, but held in his arms. “You’ll keep me safe?”
“Yes.”
“What do we do?”
“For now, we’ll use your trick and hide. They saw us ahead of them but might realize we’ve disappeared and double back to try to find us. The problem with that is that I don’t wish to meet them on the open road.”
She nodded. “And the people you’re trying to meet? The ones that can help us.”
“They’ll be coming back this way soon enough.” He finally eased his hold on her. “So, my little doe, where shall we hide ourselves from the hunters?”
He slid from the horse and then held up his hands to help her down.
She loved the feel of his hands at her waist. And she grabbed his shoulders as he slowly lowered her down. His muscles flexed under her fingers and her pulse jumped a little. Their gazes met and for a moment, she lost all sense of what she was doing as she stared into his light brown eyes, flecked with bits of gold.
He smiled down at her, his brow furrowing a bit. “Well. What do you think?”
She blinked several times. “Oh. Right.” And then she tore her gaze away to begin scanning their surroundings.
Hiding a horse was an entirely different endeavor than hiding herself. “Just a little way down the road, I saw an old barn off in the distance. I watch for those places, I guess. Anyway, we could stay there.”
He frowned. “If they double back, that may be just the sort of place they’d search.”
Lily shifted against him, worry bubbling to the surface. He made a fair point. “Want to take a look? It was far enough off the road they might not notice. Meanwhile, we could keep watch for who passes south.”
“All right. Let’s go.”
He lifted her back on the horse and they started down the road. Lily glanced over her shoulder several times as Ash led the horse.
“You know what bothers me?” she said as she distractedly stroked the animal’s neck.
“What’s that?”
“They caught up to us in a day. A whole party of them. How did they realize I was gone and then reach us so quickly?”
Ash looked back. “We must have been very close to the next rendezvous point when I rescued you.”
Lily started. That meant that Ash had saved her in the nick of time. She had the urge to toss her arms about him. Considering she sat on a horse and he walked, she resisted.
But she’d have to find a way to thank him. For the first time in a very long time, someone had put her and her safety before their own.
She pointed to the barn off in the distance, which was small and almost indiscernible from their position. “We’ll have to be very vigilant on our watch or we might miss your friends.”
“I’ve got a spyglass,” he answered, pointing toward his saddlebag. “My hunch is that they’ll only travel by day. They’ve got two women with them, and they’re not being chased. At least not yet.”
Lily sucked in her breath.
These people would be in danger once they joined her and Ash. That was her first hesitation. Should she and Ash just make a run for it on their own?
Not only did she not wish to endanger others, but she also wasn’t all that certain she wanted to meet another of her siblings. The first two she’d met hadn’t left a particularly good impression. But if Arabella looked a great deal like her, the other woman might be in danger. “Arabella—does she look enough like me that they might mistake her for me?”
Ash stopped, his face turning hard as granite. “Fu—” he started to say and then stopped.
“It’s all right. I’m not a lady. You can curse in front of me. I’ve heard it all.”
He shook his head. “Arabella is most certainly in danger. She’s on a collision course with those men.”
