“Do you really think that is wise?” he asked. “These men all have guns. You could very easily get yourself shot and killed.”
“I do hope you realize I am smarter than that,” she said with an eye roll. “What do you take me for? I shall stay with the rest of the hunting party, not to worry. I will not even wield a weapon of my own. Rather, I came for the entertainment.”
“I see,” he said, though it didn’t look like he actually did understand what she was telling him. “Stay within the trees and close to the group once we start to hunt. Dinna get too close to the open air or you may blend in.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your dress — ’tis the color of the sky.”
“How romantic of you,” she said, breaking into a wide grin, seeing an opening to have him warm up to her slightly. “Have you always such a way with words?”
He sighed as he eyed her. “Did you bring any attire with you rather than these extravagant dresses?”
“I shall have you know these are some of the finest walking and riding dresses London has to offer,” she said.
He snorted as he shrugged his shoulders. “Whatever you say, lass. Now, you will be careful?”
“I will,” she agreed, and as he rode away to take over the lead of the party, she felt rather lonely once more.
6
Adam nearly forgot about the girl as he led the party into the woodlands. In truth, he wasn’t sure if he was rooting for the men to find their game, or for the animals of the woods to avoid these English. The tourists usually liked to take home their prime catches and mount them on their walls, which was such a waste. At least they would usually leave parts of the bodies behind, allowing them to be used in meats and stews and the like.
Fortune turned out to be kind to the Englishmen and sent plenty of game toward them; however the skill of these men left a lot to be desired. When they continually missed, they became surly and seemed to blame their misfortune on their Highland guides. It came to a point when Adam had to shoot a stag down from a place beyond the trees just to quiet the men, allowing them to think one of them had been lucky enough to hit their mark.
He caught sight of the woman a few times, always tight to the back of the pack, as she had promised from the start of the day. Her dress actually did stand out among the trees, and he was pleased that she had left that awful bonnet behind today. When he had spoken with her, he had tried not to notice that the sun had brought forth freckles to sprout over her nose, and made the sleek auburn of her hair shine red. He convinced himself that he also had not noticed the deep blue of her eyes, nor the slight curves that today’s dress showcased, which he had not seen yesterday on her small frame. It seemed she was not as young as he had originally thought her to be.
He frowned as he realized he had lost his concentration, and looked at the group around him. As he did every so often, he counted the party once more, growing somewhat anxious when he realized he counted fifteen when there should have been sixteen of them, including the Highland guides as well as the tourists. He counted again and cursed when he realized he was once again short.
“Finlay!” he called out to his brother. “We’re missing someone.”
His brother turned to him, a look of concern on his face. “How can that be? We haven’t moved location for quite some time.”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “I’ve counted a few times, however, and ’tis the same.”
His brother frowned, calling Rory over. Rory knew the men better than them, as their host at Darfield Keep.
“Do you notice anyone missing?” he asked, and Rory’s gaze roamed over the group.
“Thompson,” he said finally.
“Thompson?”
“The tall fair-haired one who enjoys voicing his opinion,” Rory said wryly.
Ah. The girl’s fiancé. Or not her fiancé. Not that it mattered. “Where could he have gone off to?”
“Hopefully just to relieve himself,” he said. “We’ll have the rest of them halt shooting until we can locate him.”
Adam nodded and went round to help inform them. The girl eyed him with contempt as she waited demurely on her horse near the edge of the clearing in the forest.
Suddenly she jumped, just as Adam heard a shot ring out. “What in the name of…” A shot came again, and seconds following it, time seemed to slow as Rachel screamed and slowly slid from her horse.
Rachel had never felt pain like this before. She lay on the ground curled up as she reached a hand to her calf, which felt like it was on fire. She saw red liquid seeping out on the grass and crushed leaves around her and realized belatedly it was her own blood flowing from her injured leg. Her mind, hazy now, finally connected the sounds she had heard moments before with the injury, and she realized with a shock she had been shot.
How could that be? She had been with the group the entire time, had been so careful not to raise the ire of the man who hadn’t wanted her to come…. She groaned. He had said she would hold them back. He had said she would be injured. He had said she wasn’t fit for this hunt. Now he had been proven right.
As the pain began to be replaced by a numbness that slowly spread through her body, the last thing she saw before her eyes fluttered closed was his face. His strong, steady face. She tried to lift her hand to reach out to touch it, to tell him that he had been right and she was sorry she had
