Fanny moved up against him. “Dear God! What are we going to do?” He could feel her body quivering.
“We’ll ride together,” he said.We’ll have to. “You’re shivering.” He pulled her closer.
“I’m freezing.,” she admitted.
Of course she was. Cold. Hungry. Frightened. Alone with a man miles from anyone. Worried how they would manage, since one of their horses had disappeared. Utterly vulnerable. And it was entirely Eli’s fault. What had seemed like a brilliant idea in the middle of the afternoon now struck him as the most dunderheaded decision he had ever made. He had placed her in this position.
He opened his coat and wrapped it around her, holding her to his body for warmth.
“We should push on,” she murmured against his chest but made no effort to move. “Perhaps we’ll find the beast.”
“No, I think not. We’ve taken a great risk riding in the dark, we’ve seen no sign of the kidnappers, and we’re both exhausted.” He inhaled deeply and rested his chin on the top of her head. “I believe what’s in front of us is Spencer’s Wood. It is miles wide, and we’d have to go around all night. The other side of it is twelve miles southeast of Ashmead. If we wait until morning. we can go through.” At least he hoped so. He wished he felt as confident as he tried to sound.
“Sleep on the ground? I think right now I could sleep on rocks. Is there a blanket?” Her trust in his judgment humbled him.
He removed Reilly’s gun from his belt and unbuckled the shoulder holster with the carriage pistol; he set them against the broad trunk of the largest tree near them. He then stripped the saddle and saddlebag from their horse and located two skins of water. He saw to the horse first, removing his hat to water the beast. Their safety would depend on him.
“There’s only one blanket,” he murmured.
“But there is cheese in here. A bit of bread and apples,” Fanny told him while she rooted through one of the saddlebags. Goodfellow seemed to have thought of everything. She removed half. They would need the rest tomorrow.
Eli pulled a knife from his boot and cut one of the apples into slices, feeding it to the horse while Fanny stretched the blanket out in front of the tree where he had placed the pistols. “Wait,” he said. “I have a better idea.” He pulled the blanket up against the trunk of the tree to protect her back and put the saddlebag on it to hold it in place. “Sit and I’ll wrap it around you.”
She didn’t move. “Where will you sleep?”
“Nearby.”
“That you will not. The blanket is wide enough to wrap both of us. We’ll be warmer together,” she insisted, stooping to push the saddlebag off the blanket and pick up the food.
He couldn’t argue with her logic, but neither could he spend a night with Fanny in his arms and hold on to any fiber of the claim he was a gentleman. He had battled his growing arousal all evening, made worse by the liberties he’d already taken.
“Sit and eat. I need to do as you did. In the woods.” He stumbled over his words, causing her to laugh.
“Hurry and come back because I am getting colder. I need you.”
“I need you.” Is she trying to kill me?He moved far enough down the road that she might not hear him and stepped behind the nearest tree, devoutly wishing cold air and discomfort would cool his lust.
Dark though it was, he returned to her effortlessly as if drawn by invisible threads. She had wrapped the blanket around her, but she flipped it open. “Come and sit by me. Keep me warm.”
Eli tried his best not to think how he would like to keep her warm, but he suspected he would fight that fight all night. He sat, keeping the weapons at a short distance, still within reach. When she snuggled close, draped the blanket around them both, and handed him some bread and cheese, he realized he was ravenous for food almost as much as for Fanny.
They ate in silence until they had finished their supplies. When Fanny laid her head on his chest, he wrapped an arm around her to support her. She sighed sweetly as if he had put her on silken sheets. He thought she drifted off to sleep, but several minutes later, she spoke.
“Eli?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
“What for?” All he’d done was bring her misery.
“For taking such good care of me,” she said, her voice trailing off at the end.
That time, he knew she actually had fallen asleep, leaving him to consider his failures as a protector, not least the acute desire for the warm little body pressed next to his. His painful arousal, a penance for sure, would plague him all night.
Be careful what you wish for, Benson, because you may find what you desire most dangled just out of reach.It would be a long night.
*
