Chapter Seventeen
After another night sleeping under the stars with Ruby between her and her giant Scotsman, they packed up camp and set out, riding side by side, the morning sun slanting though the trees.
She looked sidelong at Ian. The shadow of leaves dappled his face and hair, and when he passed through a beam of uninterrupted light, his eyes shone so blue that it stole her breath.
Their pace was easy and his carriage, relaxed. She turned away to hide her smile when once again he started to hum. After a few moments, his soft singing reached her ears.
Smiling, she cut him another sidelong glance. “You do that often, you know?”
“And what is it that I do?” His attentive eyes sent a shiver up her spine. She stared, lost in two beautiful deep blue seas.
“Jo,” he said, his lips curved in a sideways smile.
“Yes,” she said absently.
“Ye were informing me of some habitual practice of mine.”
She blushed and shook the dreamy haze from her thoughts. “Humming and singing softly under your breath. You do this often, very often, actually.”
He raised his brows. “Is this a problem?”
She shook her head, her smile fixed in place. “I like it. It’s just...”
“’Tis just...what?”
“It’s just that you’re so big. It strikes me as funny that a man who clears a pathway in a crowded marketplace—solely because people close at hand are intimidated by his sheer size—hums with such frequency.”
He smiled. “I am a big man, but I’m also a decent man...remember?”
She blushed remembering their fireside conversation, a conversation they’d had on the same night that her dream had unleashed her already burgeoning desire.
He continued, “Like most people I am a great many things—brother, son, friend, fisherman, sailor.”
“Lover?” she asked softly.
He met her gaze. “What are you asking exactly?”
The heat she glimpsed in his eyes emboldened her. So what if she acted upon her desire? It didn’t mean that she had to surrender everything to him. She could still protect her true identity.
She glanced over at Ruby who was now running closer to Ian’s mount than hers. Ruby had let her guard down, hadn’t she?
Anyway, Jo had grown accustomed to fighting for what she wanted, and God above, forgive her, but she wanted Ian. “Do you have a girl waiting for you back at home?”
A soft smile played about his lips as he slowly shook his head.
She took a deep breath. She wanted to ask him to kiss her. “Ian—”
“Aye, lass.”
What was she doing? She couldn’t. But then how could she not? Better than most, she knew that life could change in the blink of an eye, and moments, lifetimes can be stolen away, lost forever.
“Will you kiss me?” she blurted. Her gaze dropped to the ground. “I’ve never been kissed before.”
An instant later, she was flying off her horse and onto his lap.
She glimpsed the heat of passion in his eyes before she closed her own, and his lips claimed hers.
His arms and masculine scent surrounded her.
His taste filled her senses. She quivered, sweet rapturous desire pulsing through her.
She pressed herself closer. Her arms came around his neck.
His lips were so tender, so warm. His touch was everything she had dreamt it would be and more...
She gasped when his tongue slid into her mouth, tasting and teasing soft moans from her lips.
When he gently pulled away, he looked down into her upturned face. “How was that?”
“Like lightning,” she breathed.
HE PULLED AWAY, LOOKING deep into her limpid eyes. “I’ve never met anyone like ye before.” He grazed his thumb across her full bottom lip. “Ye’ve courage, Jo—it lives in ye. It runs soul-deep.”
Trembling in his arms, she shook her head. “It’s an act, nothing more. I’m afraid all the time.”
He cupped her cheeks. “Courage burns through fear. I’m a warrior—I have fought alongside men charging to meet their death but who may never have been brave enough to expose the workings of their heart.
It takes greater courage to be willingly vulnerable, to cry for loss, to ask to be kissed, than it does to stand and fight one’s enemy.
” He leaned closer. “The intensity behind yer eyes stirs my soul.” He placed a feather soft kiss on one of her eyelids.
It fluttered beneath his touch. “One brown eye.” Then he kissed the other. “One blue.”
His gaze dropped to her lips. Slowly, his own lips claimed hers once more.
He savored the taste of her tremulous mouth.
She moaned softly as her arms came around his neck.
He deepened his kiss. His burgeoning desire blazed red-hot, coursing through his body, his heart pounding, his breaths quickening, but then he froze. Something had whizzed past his head.
He jerked away, his gaze scanning the ground. An arrow stabbed the earth not far from Star’s hooves.
“Hold on to me,” he growled as he dug his heel into his horse’s flanks, holding tightly to Jo’s reins. He cut through the trees. A volley of arrows shot past their heads, lodging in tree trunks as they passed.
“Ruby,” she cried out. “Come on!”
He pulled her close against his chest.
“Stay low.” They ducked under a branch. He cut hard to the right, then yanked on the reins. Up ahead, a line of riders blocked their way.
Ian glanced behind them. Archers surrounded them, their bows taut.
Jo slid to the ground and seized Ruby around the neck, holding her back from charging their attackers.
“Stay low,” Ian hissed, withdrawing his blade from the scabbard strapped to his back.
He circled his horse around, scanning the surrounding forest that was coming alive as a ragged crew continued to pour forth from the trees.
Both men and women boasted swords and arrows.
They wore threadbare clothes but looked well-fed unlike the many tinkers and exiled, lawless tribes of men Ian had encountered living in the wood over the years.
“Good morrow,” one of the riders said before clicking his tongue. His horse stepped forward. “My name is Godfrey. I welcome ye to our domain.”
“Ye’ve a thing or two to learn about hospitality,” Ian replied, not lowering his sword.
“We’re a welcoming lot to those who know how to bring out our amiable side.”
Ian narrowed his gaze. “Are ye the leader of this band of forest dwellers?”
“I am that.”
“Then tell yer mates to lower their arrows and I’ll consider sheathing my blade.”
“Ye’re outnumbered.”
“I will bring down more men than ye count with yer boots on before ye’ve managed to steal my last breath. Are ye willing to lose that many of yer followers? If ye are, some might question yer position.”
A smile spread across Godfrey’s face. “I like ye, and I don’t doubt ye would slaughter us plenty before we could kill a warrior-beast such as yerself.
But...” His gaze dropped to Jo on the ground.
“But what about the lass? Are you willing to let her die before ye’ve even heard our terms for safe passage through these woods? ”
Fury fought to claim Ian as he scanned the surrounding archers. “Put them down,” he snarled.
Godfrey reached out a placating hand. “Steady there. We’re just talking.”
“Ye’re threatening my woman. Stand down!”
Godfrey calmly continued, “We ask not for coin or the fine weapon ye hold or yer woman, who is, indeed, treasure. All of this can be over, if ye give us the dog.”
Jo gasped. Ian glanced down. She squeezed Ruby, despite how the dog struggled to break free from her grip to charge at their assailants.
“Ye’re wasting yer time. The dog heeds no one but her,” Ian said.
Godfrey smiled. “For a pack of her pups, I’ll sacrifice a finger or two.”
“You can’t have her. You’ll have to kill me first,” Jo shouted.
“Yer woman is English,” Godfrey observed. He eyed her for a moment. “Another reason to avoid bloodshed all together.”
“Walk away now and no one has to die,” Ian snarled.
Godfrey raised his hand and the archers pulled tighter on their strings. “Make peace with us or with our maker. The choice is yers.”
Ian glanced down at Jo and Ruby, then back at Godfrey. “I offer ye my horse,” he growled.
Godfrey’s eyes widened in surprise. “Ye’d part with yer fine steed over a mutt?”
“The dog has no price,” Ian said firmly. “I will die to protect them both.”
Godfrey’s gaze settled once more on Jo and Ruby and his expression softened. “I accept,” he said, bowing with a flourish.
Ian dismounted, taking his saddlebags and blanket before offering Godfrey the reins. “Take the stallion, then let us on our way.”
Godfrey nudged his horse forward, accepting the reins. Ian turned away and reached down, securing the leash around Ruby’s neck before helping Jo mount Star.
“Take care of him,” Ian told Godfrey.
“I always care for what is mine,” the woodsman replied.
Ian started to lead Star forward, but neither Godfrey nor his followers moved to let them pass.
“We had an accord,” Ian growled.
“I’m afraid we can’t let ye pass,” Godfrey replied cheerfully.
“But you gave us your word,” Jo snapped.
Godfrey clapped his hands, and the archers lowered their arrows. “Ye cannot leave without first celebrating with us.”
“What is there to celebrate?” Ian replied stonily.
Godfrey’s smile widened. “Our possession of this fine stallion, of course.” He held out his hand. “Not to mention ‘tis July ninth—the feast day of Saint Godfrey, my saint’s day.”
Ian wanted nothing more than to charge at the man, rip him down from his horse, and beat him bloody.
“I can see yer still vexed with us, but we’re not bad men,” Godfrey offered.
A woman among the archers cleared her throat.
“Or women,” he said, winking in the woman’s direction.
“But we are wanted, lawless souls, guilty of crimes ranging from theft of bread to defiance against our lords. We choose not to kneel and call anyone other than ourselves master.” Godfrey climbed down from his horse and moved to stand in front of Ian, his hand outstretched.
“Do not let the wee theft of yer horse stand between ye and a night of feasting, music and dancing.”
Ian held the man’s gaze and saw only truth in the woodsman’s eyes. Some outlaws were not bad or dangerous men, but like he and his brothers, they were rebels who refused to live out their lives beneath the yoke of other men.
Godfrey continued, “I offer ye true hospitality.”
Ian looked up at Jo. “I believe we’ve paid for a share of food and wine. What say ye?”
He could see her hesitancy but was not surprised when she slowly nodded.
Holding tightly to Ruby’s leash with one hand and the reins to their only horse in the other, Ian looked at Godfrey, his expression purposely holding a warning. “Lead on, then.”
Godfrey whooped, his cheery smile unwavering. “This will be a night to remember!”
TENSION STIFFENED JO’S shoulders as they wove through the trees.
But after a short while their attackers turned hosts began to greet her.
The women who had taken aim at her with bow and arrow were now smiling warmly.
Jo felt confused and apprehensive, but increasingly her caution was turning into excitement.
As they carried on through the forest, children appeared, darting alongside them, pointing at the newcomers and calling out greetings to their parents.
Further ahead, she spied the flicker of distant torch fire, and soon, she heard lilting notes of music.
Ian’s deep voice rasped in her ear. “If ye’re uncertain, we can make a break for it.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Ye’re trembling.”
She looked up at him, biting her cheek to suppress her own smile. “I admit that I’m excited.”
A glint of pleasure lit his blue eyes. “Ye’re excited for the feast?”
Her mismatched eyes shone with intensity. “No...our first dance.”
He kissed her hard on the mouth. “This will be a night to remember!”