Chapter 13

JACK LEANED AGAINST the barn and looked up at the sky. It was a clear night, the moon high above and casting a silver glow across the land. The Indians had names for the patterns the stars made, and he had learned how to navigate by them—a skill he found invaluable. He would teach it to Nora, as well. He would teach her everything he knew, and she would master it all. Of that, he was positive, though he couldn’t say what made him so sure.

Just then, Jack saw movement coming toward him out of the corner of his eye and he pressed himself flat against the wall, staying in the shadow of the barn. The figure in the dark was evading something—or attempting to. It dashed behind a tree, then behind another, crouching low to keep to the shadows. Who was it? Not Running Bull. That wasn’t how he moved. Why didn’t this person want to be discovered? Gooseflesh ran over Jack’s skin. Rogan. Had he found her then? Was everything to start now?

The cloaked figure was competent at hiding, but no match for Jack. As the dark figure approached him, he dove for their ankles, taking the person down easily. He heard a muffled oath, and the struggle began. The person beneath him clawed, kicked, kneed, and writhed. It didn’t take long before Jack had their wrists pinned over their head and his body firmly pressed along the length of theirs.

Or, more accurately, the length of hers.

“What in the bloody hell are you doing?” he growled down at Nora.

“Get off me this minute!” she spat back.

“No.” He did shift his weight a bit to the side and less-ened his grip on her wrists, sure their brief brawl in the dirt would leave bruises on her fair skin. “Answer my question.”

“You are not my father.”

“Fortunately, no, my lady. However, I am supposed to be your protector, which is not an easy task when you are sneaking off into the night. Especially after that rather moving speech this evening about working together.”

Nora seemed to know that fighting was of no use. She re-laxed her body beneath him and refused to meet his eyes, choos-ing instead to stare past him up at the dark sky.

“You are hurting me,” she said softly.

“What I would like to do, my lady, is wring your beauti-ful neck,” Jack countered. But her words cut through the anger, and he pushed himself off of her, yanking her up to stand in the process. She jerked away from his hold, and he let go of her. Nora lifted her chin and he had to admire her sheer bravado. She was not easily intimidated.

Before he could interrogate her further, Nora swung around and took his legs out from under him. Jack fell hard on his back, and she pinned his arms with her knees, pressing her knife to his throat. Very clever, he thought. His guard was down, and she took advantage of it. He had thought the fight done, but that was his mistake.

“Where were you going?” he demanded, not at all con-cerned about the knife at his throat. She would hardly kill him in cold blood just to prove a point.

“Nowhere,” she said, pushing back to her feet. She did not offer him help in rising—not that he needed it—but he did feel winded from his sudden crash to the ground.

“Horse shit. You can spread that one out, my lady, and fertilize the garden.”

“You are crass, Mr. Justice,” Nora sighed.

“What I am, Eleanor, is in no mood for games.”

“Are you ever?”

“Not particularly.” Jack ran a hand over his face, then dropped both his hands to his waist and studied her, only then realizing how she was clothed. It should have dawned on him while she was easily straddling his chest. “What the hell are you wearing?”

Nora sighed again. “Breeches, Mr. Justice.”

“Why?”

“They are easier to ride in, sir,” Nora explained. When she saw that he was not going to just let her by, she huffed and continued, “I feel restless tonight, and I thought a quick ride would ease my spirits. I had fallen out of the habit of bringing my saddlebag along with me on short rides, as it holds my mon-ey and weapons. In light of recent incidents, however, I thought I should start carrying it with me again when I went out. So, everything I own, but for the rest of my clothing, is with me now, sir.”

“Why are you restless?”

“I don’t have the faintest idea. I don’t have reasons for every emotion I feel, and I certainly don’t have to explain them to you.” She turned to try and evade him.

Jack grabbed her elbow and spun her back around to face him. “I didn’t say we were finished.”

Nora arched one perfect, aristocratic brow at him. If Jack were a lesser man, he would have backed off then. She might try to drop him on his behind again. But he didn’t back off. She challenged him, and he would challenge her in return. He could picture her so easily in a drawing room, the lady of the manor, smiling, laughing, entertaining, the perfect hostess, and then regally cutting an adversary off at the knees with precisely that particular look.

“I am saying we are finished,” she hissed quietly.

“Do not think to take that haughty tone with me, my lady.” Jack let go of her elbow again and stepped back. She was too much. Too much anger, too much passion, too much light, too much… “I’m sure your parents raised you to rule, but those are not useful skills now.”

The color drained from her face, and several seconds passed before she spoke. “What I was raised to be, Mr. Justice, makes no difference. I will do what I need to, I will go when I have to, and I will certainly take whatever tone or attitude I deem necessary in doing so.”

Nora stomped off into the barn and Jack followed her, swearing ripely. She moved to the stall of a white mare. The horse immediately came to the gate to greet her mistress, swish-ing her tail in anticipation of a treat or a ride. Across from her, Jack’s stallion pawed roughly at the barn floor.

“You cannot go out riding at night alone, especially on an injured horse.” Jack tried to change his tone to a more diplo-matic one. It seemed ordering her around was not going to work right now. The lady was either determined to get herself killed or make him miserable.

When she put her hand over the stall’s latch, Jack cov-ered it with his own. Nora whipped her gaze up to meet his. Jack made a point of taking one long, obvious look at her from the top of her head to the tips of her toes and back again. “If you want a fast ride in the moonlight, my lady, I’ll give you one.”

Nora’s eyes widened as she realized the double meaning in his words. “You are outrageous, sir!”

“You are not going out alone, Eleanor.”

“Of all the insufferable, pigheaded —”

Her tirade was cut off when Jack’s hand clamped down over her mouth and he shoved her up against the mare’s stall. His attention snapped to the barn door and he scanned the dark-ness. Nora’s protest died when she realized he’d heard something in the night.

“Try to get the girl without waking the old man,” an au-thoritative voice commanded. The voice was faint. It didn’t sound to Jack as if its owner was close enough to have heard them in the barn. “If something happens to him, it will rouse the countryside before first light.”

“Sir, if we eliminate the old man, it will cut off the head of the snake,” a voice replied.

“You will do as you are ordered!” the first voice snapped. “This snake has many heads, you fool. Chop off one and you will only wake the nest.”

Jack eased that gate of the mare’s stall open and pushed Nora inside. She shook her head frantically. “Stay here. I need to see how many there are,” he whispered.

“I’ll come with you,” she said, stepping forward. Jack grabbed hold of her upper arms and physically walked her backwards to the rear of the stall.

“Do not make me tie you in here,” Jack hissed. “I’ll be right back. If there are too many, we don’t want to engage in a fight.”

“Ben!” Nora said desperately in return. “We need to help him.”

“He will be fine. They aren’t here for him. Stay here. It seems as though you might get your ride after all, my lady.” Before she could argue further, Jack slid out of the stall and melted into the shadows. Running Bull waited outside the barn.

“There are five,” he said. “Why is the white army attack-ing this house? These seem like good people.”

“They’re here for the girl,” Jack said. “She’s in some kind of trouble, but I didn’t know how much. I agreed tonight to escort her to Boston, and I think we will be leaving sooner than anticipated.”

“Then we cannot accomplish that with the army follow-ing us. Soon it will be discovered you killed those four people in the forest, and whoever they work for will be coming
for you as well. You are accumulating many enemies on this trip, White Bear. Your woman is quite the problem already.”

“I told you,” Jack hissed, “she is not my woman.” Jack’s eyes widened as a knife appeared at Running Bull’s throat. Run-ning Bull gave Jack a look as if to ask if he were sure about that but made no move to fight back.

“Nora,” Jack whispered harshly, “I told you to stay where you were.”

“And you can see it is a good thing I didn’t. I might well have saved you from this heathen.” Nora kept her gaze on Running Bull, who arched an eyebrow at Jack.

“I know this heathen,” Jack replied. “We’ve been traveling together.”

“You know him?” she asked, relaxing her arm just a bit and looking from Running Bull to Jack.

“He does,” Running Bull replied in perfect English. Nora looked surprised that Running Bull could understand and speak their language so well. “He is my blood brother.”

“My apologies,” Nora said lowering her arm. “It is a pleasure to meet you, sir.”

“I am Running Bull, and the pleasure is mine.”

“Can we delay the drawing room introductions for a time when certain death is not imminent?” Jack demanded. “Eleanor, go back to the barn.”

“They are already in there,” Running Bull said, pulling them both to the tree line. “There are five men. I believe some have gone into the house.”

“You see?” Nora hissed at Jack. “Ben is not fine! We must go after him.”

“We must take care of the men outside first,” Jack replied.

“I will handle the men outside,” Running Bull said. “You go inside. The lady can stay with me. You will be faster without her.”

“The lady is fully capable of doing her share of the work,” Nora growled. “I have fought men before.”

“There is no time to argue now,” Jack said harshly. “Stay with Running Bull. Do exactly what he says. If he tells you to stay back, you stay back.”

“Did you hear anything I said earlier, Mr. Justice?” Nora countered. “We are a team. You are not in charge.”

“And this is a waste of valuable time,” Jack said. “By arguing, you are giving them the chance to sneak up on us. Go, now.”

Rather than listen to anything more, Jack turned on his heel and headed to the house, creeping through the shadows.