'I hope you don't get nightmares,' Hugh said.
'Not with you here,' I said quickly and looked away before he did.
It was a few moments before Hugh spoke again.'I know it is wet,' he said, 'but try and get some sleep.We are moving just before dawn.'
'We're riding in daylight?'I looked up in disbelief.
'The Armstrongs are not fools.'Hugh was no longer smiling.'They know that any fugitive will sit tight during the day and ride at night.Sooner or later somebody will see our hoof prints leading up here and they will work out where we are.The best thing we can do is hide where they will not expect to see us.We will hide in the open.'
'I don't understand,' I said.
'We are going to ride right through the middle of Liddesdale as though we own the place,' Hugh told me.'Slow and brazen.'His grin was now as broad as I had ever seen it.'And that will be a story you can tell your grandchildren!'
I felt that renewed surge of mingled excitement and anticipation as I contemplated riding through Liddesdale.That vision returned, with my husband, if it was my husband, and the three children, with the word Robert on the coat of arms.'You are a daring man,' I said.
'I am just a man,' Hugh replied.
This time I did not allow him to back away.'No, Hugh,' I said.'You are a man of daring.In truth, I have never met a man like you before.'
Hugh frowned.'There is nothing special about me…'
I took hold of his arm, unsure how I felt.I know I was angry but there were other emotions there also, some of them that I did not want to admit.'There is a lot special about you.'
He pulled his way clear, not as gently as I would have liked.I took hold of him; determined not to let him go.'Hugh,' I said, 'I am paying you a compliment.'
'I know you are!'Hugh did not attempt to free himself.
'Then allow me to say nice things about you!'I stood up, holding him by the forearm.It was as hard as iron and so thick I could hardly span it with both hands.'You have saved me in a dozen different situations.Every day you do something that surprises me, from not spying on me when I am washing, to bringing me new clothes or not blaming me when I nearly got us both killed.'I was talking quickly now, not sure what I expected to happen but certain that I intended something.
Hugh eased his arm away.'You freed me first,' he said.
'You saved me second, and third, and fourth, and fifth.'I stood back.The standing stone was hard at my back.I thought I could feel some power surging through it, some elemental force that I could not understand.Or perhaps the power came from me and I transmitted it to the stone.I do not know.I only know that I was very aware of some sensation that I had never known before.
'You are the gentlest man I have ever met,' I told him.
'A gentle man who kills people.'Hugh took another step away from me.
'Don't you like compliments?'I asked him.'Don't you like people being nice to you?'I lowered my voice, lest half the outlaws of Liddesdale heard us and climbed up to listen to a conversation that I suspected was about to become quite heated.I stepped closer and raised my face to his to emphasise my point.
'No,' Hugh said softly.'No, I don't.'
'Why not?'I finally lost my temper with this frustrating, lovely, capable, maddening non-ugly man.'Why don't you like me complimenting you, damn it?'
'Because, dear sweet Jeannie,' he obviously kept his own temper with something of an effort, 'I have fallen in love with you.'
'Oh.'I stepped back again.'Oh.'I did not take my gaze off his face.That was the last thing I had expected to hear.
'And you have your Robert,' Hugh said.'You do not want me.'
Did I not want him?I touched the stone once more.Did I want him?I felt that same sensation surging through me again and I searched inside myself.I thought of Robert and how we had promised ourselves to each other many years ago and had remained faithful ever since.I thought of the years we had spent growing up, the experiences we had shared in childhood and youth.I remembered the promises we had made to each other and which we had renewed year after year, making rings of grass and twining them around our childish fingers as tokens of our love.
And then I looked up at Hugh as he stood beside me with his uncertain, rugged face and all the past washed away in a flood of recent memories and feelings.I thought of his constant care, his capability and, perhaps most of all, of that half hour or so when I had stood behind a tree and watched him at the waterfall.
'Yes, I do,' I said, so softly that I hardly heard my own voice.'Oh yes, I do want you.'
Suddenly that wanting exploded inside me.It had lain dormant, waiting its opportunity since those first few minutes in the dungeon when I heard Hugh's voice.Now it was like a torrent of desire.My mother had warned me of the Tweedie Passion that lay volcanic within everybody of our name, and now I had my first experience that I was not immune.I was a Tweedie, with my full measure of the Tweedie Passion.
Hugh turned slowly toward me, with that ugly-handsome face sharing my torment.Ignoring the rain, I peeled off the outer layer of my clothing as I stepped toward him.'Hugh,' I said, and put my hands on his face.He was rough-skinned, a day unshaven so the bristles rasped against my palms: the feel of a man.
