If You Dare(58)

“I will not slow us down.”

“Anna,” he began in a warning tone, “the coach, or I’ll take my kiss and I’ll take it back in the bed.”

She must have believed him, because she glowered at him, but only while sashaying to stand beside the coach.

When Groot brought out their things, Court tossed the bags to the coachman, then set about loading the weapons that Hugh and Ethan had unknowingly paid for this morning. He couldn’t resist running a hand over his new rifle, near lovingly. A repeating rifle, five shots in one loading—he’d heard tales of them coming in the future, tales in the same vein as those of the beast of Loch Ness, but he’d never seen one. This rifle meant dead Rechazados.

Once they were set and Groot had returned inside, she mumbled, “I still say we should ride.”

“Anna, you’re no’ as strong as you think.”

“No, I’m not,” she said, her chin at a stubborn angle. “Every time I conclude how strong I am, I surprise myself. I continue to exceed my conclusions, so I must be stronger than I think.”

She surprised him, too. Constantly. Like now, when after her rousing statement about her growing strength, the prim little lady stood outside the coach’s door, directly beside the folding step, waiting for him to assist her in. She didn’t even realize she should be making a show of helping herself inside, making a gesture of independence.

His eyes narrowed. Or perhaps she did realize it and wanted all things her way.

As he strode toward her—and how could he not when she put her arms out to him?—he thought about the paradox. All Court knew was that a woman who peered at her nails infinite times in a day should not know how to hide a rock in her skirt to pummel the unwitting Scot.

Her incongruent actions went against all that was right and governable in the laws of nature.

He shook his head hard, then handed her in, growling under his breath, “Fascinatin’ woman.”





Nineteen




I sn’t the countryside lovely?” Annalía asked as she gazed out over a valley in Burgundy. The land was bedecked with patchwork fields of sunflowers and vineyards, and she smelled damp earth. When the sun came out from behind white clouds, a breeze blew, but swayed only the squares of towering blooms. And she couldn’t stop smiling.

“Lovely,” he agreed though he’d never looked away from her. He’d been watching her closely ever since her…indiscretion four nights ago, though Annalía wished he wouldn’t read too much into her actions. She’d simply been reacting to the traumatic events of the day, and there’d been imbibing once more, but he acted as though something had changed between them other than the fact that she no longer detested him.

To be honest, she didn’t even think she could manage to dislike him anymore. She’d seemed to grow used to him, becoming more comfortable around his size, becoming more aware when his sharp words were like teasing.

And she suspected that the impulses to be good to her and even possibly gentler with her were within him. Unfortunately, she also suspected that he didn’t know quite what to do with those impulses.

She could nearly think of them as uneasy allies, except for the fact that his help would come at a price. Her knight slayed no dragons without a payment, one that he hadn’t yet demanded.

As they rode through the first town in the valley, the bright colors of the homes struck her, and she thought she heard music. When she tried to work her coach window open, he quickly reached across her to shove it down with ridiculous ease. It was a gesture a Castilian gentleman might make. Except for the total destruction of the window rails.

With the breeze blowing in, she could hear the music carried along, could hear it even over the horses’ hooves clacking on cobblestone. “I want to stay here tonight.”

“There are hours until dark. We need to get farther on.”

Each night he would take a room for her, just long enough for her to rest and change her bandage or get a bath and for Coachy to sleep on his bench. Making up for time lost to daily morning storms, MacCarrick pushed them well into the night and then had them setting out before dawn, though she never saw him sleeping.

She thought the only reason he’d stopped at all was because he didn’t want her to get too exhausted. So she sighed wearily. “I just felt…faint,” she lied. “From the arduous pace you’ve been keeping.”

He gave her an irritated look. “You doona feel faint or I’d know it. Do you want to stay here so badly that you’d lie to me?”

She scrunched her lips. “Well, yes.”

He scowled. A minute later, he called out new directions.