The full moon provided no answers but would afford some light on the other side, once the fire was behind him. He would have little trouble finding the Menzie campsite.
He reached into his leather saddlebag and pulled out a large cloth soaked in water.
How much longer could he deny that he was doing this to stop Roddie from having Janet? Menzie would have to kill him before he let it happen. He could take the slow chief in a fight. Darach preferred not to have to kill Roddie and start a war, but if he needed to kill him to keep him from Janet, Darach wouldn’t hesitate.
It was Janet on his mind, not Ravenglade, when he took off running into the wall of fire and leaped across the sticky tar-soaked grass. He landed on the other side with a thud and rolled to a stop beyond the fire. He unwrapped his head and doused the burning patches of his clothes with the rag.
He looked around. As he’d expected, visibility was better with the light behind him. He knew which way to go and… His thoughts ended abruptly when his eyes caught a ball of fire bursting through the flames.
Someone had followed him. He leaped forward with his dripping rag and jumped on top of the body to douse the burning embers charring the fool’s clothes… skirts. No! She would never… She wore a soaked cloth just like his around her head. He yanked it free.
“Janet!” He wanted to shake her, check every inch of her to make certain she wasn’t hurt. “What the hell are ye doin’, lass?”
The wet springy hair falling over her eyes only partially veiled her relief at seeing him above her. All too soon, though, it was gone. “I want to have a part in my future, Darach. I want to know what decisions are being made about my life. What is so terrible about that?”
Nothing. Hell, he would want the same thing.
“I didna’ see ye following me in the tunnel.”
“I knew ye would be leaving Ravenglade tonight to visit the Menzies, so I left the tunnel before ye and waited in the woods.”
Darach wanted to throttle her. Clever wench. He could feel the rapid pounding of her heart beneath him, her heavy breath against his neck. He didn’t move off her but looked into her eyes. She had a right to be involved in her own future, and he would tell her everything in the morning, but right now she needed to listen to him.
“Ye need to stay here and—”
He didn’t expect her to cup his face in her hands and pull him down for a kiss. Her mouth was, not surprisingly, warm, having just come through the fire. It was the shy dip of her tongue into his mouth that seared his blood. She tasted of willful defiance, determination, and desire. Was this about her feelings for him, or an attempt to get what she wanted?
He didn’t care.
She groaned from somewhere in the back of her throat and he deepened their kiss, basking in the feel of her beneath him. He moved over her, dipping his hips and thighs against hers. His hardening body apparently unnerved her and she broke free of his mouth.
“I want to come with ye, Darach,” she said in a husky whisper against his lips. “I gave my consent for a future with Menzie, but I need it back. I can’t marry him. I need yer help to get him oot of my life.”
He lifted his head and stared down at her. “Ye’re a resourceful lass, Janet Buchanan. Usin’ yer sweet mouth to lure me into compliance.”
“I’ll use anything to wed the man I love, not the one I dislike,” she said with a hint of breathlessness.
“Who is the man ye love?” he asked her. It was him. It had to be. The thought of her marrying someone else revolted him.
“Ye smile because ye mock me, Darach. Ye think, because ye stole my letters and read them—”
“I didna’ steal them,” he said. “And ’twas only one I read.”
“I’ll never fergive ye,” she promised quietly and turned her face away from him.
“I’ll wear ye doun,” he countered close to her ear.
“Mayhap ye will.” She shrugged and then looked at him again, their lips almost touching. “Or ye can let me come with ye.”
He smiled on her mouth and then kissed her before withdrawing. “All right, ye can come. But when I tell ye to stay put, ye’ll do it or ye’ll see me do things ye willna’ ferget fer a long time.” When she nodded her compliance, he sprang to his feet, doing his best to ignore the feeling of emptiness their separation left him with.
Pulling her to her feet and cursing his puny mettle, he turned his face to the forest and his attention to his instincts. He trusted them to lead him to the Menzies.
“We’re goin’ to discuss this lack of obedience ye’re cursed wi’ later,” he said, holding her hand in the darkness when they entered the trees.
“I obey God only, and earnestly, not as often as I should.” The passion in her voice was replaced by bland disinterest. “And despite what ye think, ye’re not Him.”
In front of her, he grinned. Damn it but he liked spending time with her. Would it be absolutely thoughtless and reckless to fall in love with her? Was he ready to give his life to one woman? Did he care what others thought about who he loved? Hell. He was damn near sure he loved her.
