Or perhaps another traveler would come this way, disturbing whatever they might be plotting.
Or, and here was a radical idea, Kit would return from wherever he’d gone? Was that an unreasonable expectation?
It had annoyed her that she had to depend on him for a bodyguard. A woman alone should never be a target... but she was. She could tell just by the way they started moving toward her, a sidling walk, the predators spotting a treat.
“Hello, miss,” one of them had called out. He was short with straw-colored hair under a much-abused tricorne. The others, the older ones, had pushed him forward with snickering suggestions. “You are a fetching sight.”
“Go away,” Elise had ordered. Beside her, Tamsyn had growled, the hair on her neck rising.
“Whoa, there. Call off your dog. We are just being friendly,” said one. “Can’t we talk to a pretty girl on such a fine day?”
“Or invite her to travel with us for a spell. Especially since we are all as lonely as you seem to be,” another chimed in with a smile that warned Elise to run—which is exactly what she decided to do.
“Come, let us findmy husband,” she’d announced to Tamsyn, wanting these louts to know she wasn’t alone. Of course, the hard part was turning her back on them. What if they rushed after her?
What if Kit had abandoned her and he wasn’t close by to help?
Then she would pretend. She must. She had no other option.
However, to her surprise, Tamsyn had confronted the pack of men. She’d barked and snapped at them, revealing rows of sharp teeth, and they’d backed off, giving Elise a chance to escape.
She had charged into the woods. Behind her, she heard someone shout, “Damn dog.”
Elise had not stopped. She had worried about Tamsyn, about what might happen to both of them—and then, to her relief, the wily shepherd’s dog had come running to join her.
Glancing behind, she saw there were no pursuers. Elise stopped, her breathing heavy. She threw her arms around Tamsyn. “You are so brave. So very, very brave.”
Tamsyn had basked in the adoration.
But of course, the big question had been, where was Kit?
Again, she turned to Tamsyn. “Find him.”
The dog understood. She was as smart as they came. She had sniffed the ground, trotted several feet, and then stopped, her body alert before she went off again.
Elise had followed as best she could because Tamsyn had been practically racing through the trees—and then they had found Kit.
Oh, yes, they had.
Elise’s cheeks burned with the memory of what she’d seen.
It wasn’t as if she didn’t know what a man’s chest looked like. There wasn’t anything special about them. Elise was a country girl, and men were never modest. She just hadn’t expectedhimto be naked all over. Even his feet.Naked.Out in the everywhere.
But what had really taken her aback was how he looked naked. He wasn’t like any of the yeomen, stable lads, or crofters she’d glimpsed without their shirts on. They had appeared pasty and ridiculous.
In contrast, Kit’s body had been a work of art, one that could rival any Greek statue.
He hadn’t been shy either. He’d met her eye, even while she’d struggled to breathe, or even to think. Coming upon him that way had been a shock.
And now the image of him standing in the forest like some proudnakedwarrior was burned in her mind, never to be forgotten, even as sheput as much distance between herself and Kit as possible.
There she’d been, almost attacked waiting for him while he’d been seeing to his—what? Toilette? Or something she didn’t wish to think about? Because men were odd creatures. Lady Whitby had assured her the majority of them were quite disgusting in their habits. She’d shared with Elise rumors of some of the unsavory things that even the most genteel of them had done. One that had shocked Elise was the story of a well-known lord who had consummated his marriage on the sitting room setteewhilehis guests were in the next room enjoying the wedding breakfast.
“Everyone could hear them,” Lady Whitby had proclaimed.
Elise shook her head as if wanting to dislodge such a distasteful piece of gossip.
She also reminded herself that behavior like embarrassing one’s wife or parading naked in the woods was the reason her heart had gone to Michael Brogan. There was nothing unsuitable about Michael. He was the model of a true gentleman. Whereas Kit was a nobody, she reminded herself. A self-professedwanderer, whatever that meant. Anakedwanderer.
