The horse snorted, and she patted its withers with a murmur of appreciation and encouragement.
The rhythm of her mount’s steps abruptly altered, and through her sleep-addled mind, she heard an audibleclick. Juliana’s neck prickled painfully, jolting her instantly alert. Her mount spooked, side-stepping in agitation as she slowed to a stop.
A man strode out of the shadows toward her, his boots crunching ominously. The closer he came, the faster Juliana’s pulse raced.
It’s a ghost,her mind whispered, and for an impossible moment, she believed it. No, he wasn’t a ghost. But how was he alive? How had he found her? And how could he possibly have known where she would be riding?
His face came into view, beautiful and horrifyingly evil all at once. His hair was as blond as the sun glinting off of wheat, his eyes as green as the trees, and his body finely sculpted. Even with the shroud of darkness around them, he veritably shone with his beauty.
“Stand and deliver, Juliana,” he drawled, a pistol pointed at her and his eyes glinting with malevolence.
“But you’re dead,” she whispered hoarsely. “I killed you.”
CHAPTER11
Not for the first time in his life, Leonard was grateful for his long hair and beard. The wind that night was damned cold, but he had at least a modicum of protection against it.
The horses were tired, but he had hope. The prints that they followed were obscured by freshly fallen snow, but he could ascertain at a glance that Miss Smith hadn’t run her horse for long, likely in an effort to conserve its energy. If he, Percy, and the carriage that followed behind kept their pace steady, they would intercept Miss Smith within the quarter hour. He hoped.
The skin behind his knees felt simultaneously numb and achy with nerves, and he had the urge to shake out his legs. His body was a confounding frenzy of emotions: confusion, frustration, concern, dread… In the past two hours, he’d had sensations of which he’d not known himself capable.
Percy rode his gelding alongside Leo and shouted over the audible crunch of horses’ hooves in the snow and the carriage’s rattling, “Her mount began dragging its hooves. And these marks are fresh.”
Leo followed the man’s gaze to the grooves in the snow, and nodded. “Not too much farther, surely.”
* * *
The handsome,vile man laughed, his white teeth flashing behind the fog of his breath. “You shot me, certainly, but as you see I am still alive.”
Despite the cold, a sweat borne of pure terror began to tickle between Juliana’s breasts. She swallowed past the lump of fear in her throat. “How do you know my name?” The words came out slurred, her lips numb from the frigid air.
“Now is not the time to spoil that fun little surprise,” he drawled. “Time to dismount.”
She did as he demanded, her thoughts whirling. If she dismounted to her left, she would have a brief moment out of the man’s view to retrieve her penknife.Left, it is. Landing hard, her legs wobbled, and she slipped her hand discreetly into the pocket of her stolen greatcoat.
Boots crunched. Her shoulders tensed.
The man rounded the horse, and her stomach twisted. He approached swiftly and without hesitation. His hand reached out and caught her face, squeezing hard. Juliana whimpered as his fingertips dug punishingly into her cheeks and jaw and pulled her to him.
“I have little patience,” he growled. “I’m going to follow through with orders this time. I’ve been searching for you for far too long.”
“Orders?” she asked with difficulty around his hold on her.
“Orders. I daresay you’ll learn all about it.”
She whimpered again as his grip tightened further. Her grasp stiffened on her penknife, still hidden in her pocket, and she pulled it open with her thumbnail. “How did you know where to find me this evening?”
His smile was brilliant. “A fortuitous phenomenon, as it happens.”
Juliana glared at him, and he laughed, releasing her face to slap her mount’s rear. The poor beast whinnied and turned, running back the way she had come.
Now!her conscience screamed.
The man’s guard was down, his face turned to watch the horse run off. Wheeling her arm in an arc, she came down with the penknife in her fist, jabbing it into the muscle between his shoulder and neck.
He screamed, his mask of fury and agony swinging back toward her. His blood splattered her hand, her front, and disturbingly marred the snow around them.
In a haze of distraught panic, Juliana kneed the man squarely between the legs.Bang!His pistol discharged harmlessly into the fallen snow, the sound ricocheting in her ears. Juliana gave a startled yelp as the man cried out gutturally. A string of blasphemes and threats fell from his lips as he dropped to his knees. And Juliana ran.
