Set apart from them was a red brick cottage with an adjoining workshop.
The workshop they'd passed earlier.
A man stood with his back to them, lifting a horse's foot as he worked to apply a new horseshoe. He was tall and muscular, and despite the cold, he wore a shirt that was rolled up, revealing flexed muscles.
Mira stopped in her tracks.
Suddenly time stood still. All sound fell away.
She watched him set down the horse's foot and straighten up.
There was something familiar about his figure.
A cold, numbing sensation spread through her body as the blood drained from her face.
As if sensing her presence, he turned slowly, and their eyes met.
ChapterSeven
Seemingly out of nowhere,he was there.
Taller, older than before.
The slim, boyish frame had filled out and become brawny and broad on top. The hair was the same thick and forevermore tousled, falling into his eyes.
His eyes. Mud brown tinged with green.
Mira drew in a ragged breath.
"Kit."
Her legs buckled under her, and she collapsed in the middle of the gravelled, soggy driveway.
He was with her in an instant.
"Mira. Dear sweet Lord. Mira."
He carriedher into the workshop, wrapped her in a blanket, and rubbed her hands.
Repeated her name over and over again. "Mira." And then, "You're in shock."
Was she?
She couldn't feel a thing. The numbness still had her whole body in its grip, and the iciness in her veins had a firm, icy, numbing grip on her heart.
She felt dizzy and lightheaded. Her mind reeled with disbelief.
"It feels cold," she said through chattering teeth.
"Here, something hot." He pressed a hot mug into her hands. "Drink."
But she could not swallow; the paralysis had taken hold of her whole body. She dropped the mug.
"Kit," she whispered. "Are you really here?"
He crouched beside her, a troubled, unreadable look in his eyes. "Yes, Mira."
"All this time? You've been here?" She couldn't believe it. She licked her dry lips before she said, "Not d-dead in a ditch, or swinging at Tyburn, or shipped off to the colonies." Her breathing became shallow and quick. "You were here all the time. S-safe."
