“That’s him!” Leonard said suddenly.
Christoph had to stand up to see over the driver’s high perch, where Leonard had finally taken a seat for the rest of the ride up the hill. They were nearly to the turnoff and the long road east that accessed so many noble estates, including Christoph’s home. He had told Alana he would leave her briefly with his family while he went with Leo to be shown which estate was harboring Bruslan sympathizers. But he saw the man now himself, turning to come down the mountain road. And they were spotted as well.
“Would he recognize you?” Christoph asked Leonard.
“No, but it’s possible he doesn’t want anyone to see him up here—don’t shoot at him!” Leonard amended as Christoph raised his rifle.
The man had left the road to find a different route to avoid getting close enough to them to be recognized, straight down into the wooded hillside. “I won’t kill him,” Christoph said, still taking aim.
“Just let him go. Let him think his precaution just now succeeded, so he will be confident that he has nothing to worry about.”
“Are you placing less importance on him now than you implied?”
“No. I merely know where to find him. I can wait in the Bruslan Stronghold until he shows up. I have an easy access in and out of that place now. If you chase him now and he manages to escape, he’ll go into hiding and we will never find who he answers to.”
Christoph swore under his breath, but sat back down. Then he noticed Alana’s cautionary look in his direction. He took a moment to lean over and kiss her hard on the lips. Not very satisfying for either of them, but then he was only trying to reassure her.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I wasn’t going to invite bullets to fly your way again.”
She started to raise a hand to her lips, but caught herself doing it and put her hand back under the blanket. “I wasn’t worried. But it would appear that your reason for leaving me with your parents just took off for the city, so the danger you mentioned is gone. And I already have a feeling I know who that fellow was visiting.”
“Oh?”
“Your lady friend who thinks you’ll marry her.”
Christoph chuckled at the way she put that, but asked Leonard, “How far down the road is that estate you followed the Bruslan man to?”
“Not far.”
Christoph told Alana, “Perhaps you’re right.”
“Then you’re not dropping me off first,” she said adamantly. “I want to be there when she squirms under your questioning.”
He couldn’t help grinning. He was sure he knew why, from her disgruntled expression, but he still wanted to hear it. “Why?”
“She was very nasty to me that day at your house. Very nasty.”
“You think you can get answers out of her that I can’t?”
Alana smiled. “No, I just want to sit back and watch. I know firsthand how . . . barbaric you can be when you set your mind to it.”
“An interesting remark,” he said thoughtfully. “Does that mean you actually think these barbaric tendencies you’ve been assuring me I have are now deliberate rather than natural as you’ve been maintaining?”
“No, I—” The blush came this time, a pretty pink. “Perhaps sometimes.”
He laughed. “For the record, Princess, giving a prisoner a sense of helplessness is a very useful tool and is quickly accomplished by completely stripping them naked before questioning. Preventing myself from doing that to you was very—difficult. Not very barbaric, eh?”
She sucked in her breath, then glanced worriedly at the driver’s perch, where Leonard was sitting with his back to them, to make sure he wasn’t listening before she leaned toward Christoph to scold in a whisper, “Hush. This isn’t an appropriate conversation to be having at any time, much less here.”
“Why be embarrassed about what a man and woman do with each other, or feel for each other.”
“I’m soon to be betrothed to another!”
“Do you really want to hold that up as a means to silence me when you admitted you don’t want him? I’m happy to say that won’t work now.”
“Ha!” she replied as indignantly as she could manage. “Besides, that wasn’t intimacy between two people you were talking about just now, but a grueling session of questioning.”
He ran the back of his fingers along her cheek. “With you, I have to disagree. With you, all I wanted to do was sweep you up in my arms and take you to the nearest bed. So it will not come as a surprise if I tell you how much I enjoyed that interrogation, with you in your underclothes. I enjoyed it so much I was hoping we could do it again someday.”
