by Rebecca King
The small copse she stumbled across a few hours later consisted of about twenty or so trees. Rosemary nudged the horse through it and found a field. She contemplated whether to walk through it. When she hesitated, another gust of wind rattled the branches of an old oak tree, and made the horse danced about nervously. Rosemary was no match for its size or strength. When the horse tossed its head, she tried to haul back on the reins and regain control of the animal, but there was nothing she could do when he began to prance about nervously. The leaves rattling again was enough to panic the horse, who began to trot and yank his head about as he broke free of the woodland and tried to break free of her.
‘Please don’t do this,’ Rosemary pleaded, trying desperately to hold the reins while staying in the saddle. She didn’t know what she should be holding. If she released the reins and held the saddle the horse would start to run. If she held on to the reins and not the saddle, she was going to be thrown into the dirt. ‘Just stop. Stop.’
But the horse continued to prance and dance about, tossing his head this way and that as he fought to run. Eventually, Rosemary was too exhausted to fight him anymore. When he yanked his head down, she was propelled forward, out of the saddle. The world whirled alarmingly as she flew high into the air for a second time that night only to land in an undignified heap in the field.
‘Wait!’ Rosemary scrambled to her feet and tried to catch the horse, but when the animal saw the pale material of her dress fluttering in the night, it darted away and began to run across the field in fear. There was nothing Rosemary could do to catch it.
‘Well damn,’ she growled, glaring angrily at it as it disappeared into the darkness. From her viewpoint, she could see nothing more than an empty field at the far end of which was a larger, denser woodland. Squinting at it, she shook her head in dismay. ‘If that is Windle Woods, I am miles away from home.’
It was enough to make Rosemary want to cry because it meant that she had many hours of walking ahead of her before she could reach safety. With a miserable sniff, she climbed over the gate but when she dropped down into the field beyond heard the tearing of the fabric of her dress.
‘Now what?’ She cried, trying to see the back of her skirts. She patted the material, mentally wincing when she felt a cold draught snake up the back of her legs that she knew she hadn’t felt before. ‘Damn it! Can tonight get any worse?’
Rosemary tipped her head back and willed herself to remain calm. Getting angry and screaming her head off might be beneficial to her peace of mind, and release some of her fear and worry, but it was also going to alert Morton to where she was. She had no choice but to bite her lip and start to make her way home.
‘The only thing I can do is stay off the road but stay close enough to it that I can see it and know that I am going in the right direction. If Morton reappears, I shall just have to deal with him. Right now, I am going to die if I stay out here if I don’t get moving.’ With another miserable sniff, Rosemary lifted what was left of her dress away from her boots and began to walk.
Deep inside, she worried about Luke. He must have realised that there was something odd about her not coming downstairs to see what all the commotion was about. He must have checked on her – mustn’t he?
Luke stood on his stirrups and scoured the area once more, but there wasn’t any sign of Rosemary.
‘We know that he used Windle Woods. Let’s go back that way,’ Daniel suggested.
‘He can’t have come this far,’ Luke hissed.
‘He must have turned to the left as soon as he cleared that first field and then circled around to cut through Windle Woods. I am not saying that she is there, but she must be nearby. She certainly isn’t with Morton now.’
‘Need a hand?’ Joshua asked suddenly. He grinned when Luke threw him an askance look.
‘Jesus, where in the hell have you been?’ Luke growled.
‘I have been helping Roger. When I finished my turn on watch over the shop, and nobody came to relieve me, I suspected that something was wrong and went to your house. I found a barn full of criminals, and one very annoyed Roger trying to get information out of our little arsonist.’
‘Any news yet?’
‘Not yet, but the young lad will lose his belligerence in time,’ Joshua replied. He looked around the empty field. ‘Where is he?’
‘That is what we were hoping you could tell us,’ Daniel growled. ‘We have lost Rosemary as well.’
‘Was she with Morton?’ Joshua’s brows lifted. His smile fell.
‘No. Well, they were together,’ Luke replied.
Joshua nodded and dismounted. The men stopped for several moments and watched Joshua walk around the field. They had no idea what he was looking for. Once or twice he knelt and wandered away only to double back again until eventually he seemed to pick up on a trail. Luke cautiously followed.
‘Is this likely to be hers?’ Joshua asked, lifting a strip of material off a nail protruding from the opposite side of the gate two fields away from Windle Woods.
‘It has to be,’ Luke whispered. The second he felt the fine material, Luke lifted it and breathed in the delicate scent of Rosemary. ‘It’s hers.’
‘Well, she came this way,’ Joshua informed him. He grinned suddenly. ‘On foot.’
‘Morton lost her,’ Daniel growled with huge relief. ‘So, let’s find her before Morton does.’
‘Which way?’ Luke didn’t even stop to think about how choked his voice was. He watched Joshua pick up the faint trail in the soil and point across the field, to the low stone wall.
‘She is going home,’ Joshua announced confidently.
‘Go,’ Daniel urged Luke.
Joshua lingered long enough to mount his horse before cantering after his colleagues. None of them doubted how much Rosemary had changed Luke in a short space of time. Luke didn’t even bother to try to hide just how personal this now was and didn’t care who knew or what they felt about his adoration of Rosemary. While Joshua knew he should be issuing a few words of caution, his own experiences with his darling Annalisa were more than enough to make him keep his doubts to himself. Instead, he did everything in his power to help Luke secure the hand of the woman he quite clearly adored. Joshua shared a grin with Daniel, who shook his head at Luke’s back. They had both been in similar situations and knew exactly what Luke was facing right now, so wisely left Luke to his own thoughts.
‘Over there,’ Joshua called.
Luke hauled back on his reins long enough to look back at Joshua, who was pointing to something about twenty feet away from the road; a small figure, hunched against the biting wind, barely visible beside the stone wall and hedgerow. Occasionally, there was a flash of pale material which disappeared as fast as it appeared, but it was enough. Luke knew exactly who it was, and wasted no time charging after her.
At first, Rosemary didn’t hear the thundering of hooves behind her. She couldn’t hear anything except her own thoughts, the thundering of her heart, and the wind whipping around her. With a sniff, she climbed over the stone wall and eyed the road beside her balefully for several moments. Before she started to walk again, though, she took a cautious look around. She didn’t notice the rider dressed in black, sitting atop an equally black horse, racing toward her. It wasn’t until she heard the hoof beats pounding the soil in the field that she turned to take another look. When Rosemary saw him, she stumbled backward in horror only for her heel to get caught on a large boulder buried deep in the soil. Her cry was muffled by the heavy thud of her body hitting the floor.
Luke cursed when Rosemary disappeared. He kicked his horse into a canter and nudged it forward to jump into the field Rosemary was in. Once there, he circled around to face her.
‘Thank God,’ he growled, dropping to his knees beside her.
Rosemary could do little more than stare up at him. Luke looked so handsome and roguish that he stole her breath.
He also looks stern, as if I have done something wrong.
Ro
semary couldn’t defend herself because Luke hauled her into his arms and held her so tightly that she struggled to breathe. Several more riders thundered to a stop a few feet away but none of them ventured closer. Instead, they hovered several feet away, keeping watch over the area while Luke spoke to the women they had been searching for.
Luke struggled to get words past the lump in his throat. All he could do was savour the woman in his arms and be thankful that he had found her again. The last hour or two had been the longest in his life.
‘Are you all right?’ he murmured gently. With a hand that shook he lifted an errant damp curl off her dirt covered cheek. Rosemary stared back at him with eyes that were so full of fear that Luke doubted she had heard or understood him. ‘Rosemary.’
Rosemary tried to keep her distance because she knew they were many miles away from home, and she wasn’t safe yet, but she couldn’t resist touching his cheek with gentle fingers.
Luke captured her icy fingers and pressed a lingering kiss against them before pressing them to his cheek. ‘God, I love you,’ he whispered. He didn’t need to think about whether it was the right time or place to say such a thing. The words came from his heart. ‘I need you to be safe. I must know you are safe, Rosemary. I am sorry. I failed you.’
‘You did no such thing,’ Rosemary assured him. ‘You are not responsible for what that blackguard did or does in the future.’
‘But I should have kept you safe,’ Luke insisted. ‘You should have been safe under my roof.’
‘I have been,’ Rosemary assured him. ‘It was Morton who put that house in as much danger as me. It appears that there is nothing that man won’t try to destroy.’ She glanced worriedly around the field. ‘Where is he?’
‘We have lost him,’ Luke admitted. ‘He was racing across the fields toward Lockler when we last saw him. We will find him. Joshua is an expert tracker. He managed to find you for us. We lost you. I lost you.’ He lowered his forehead to hers and savoured the fact that she was alive.
They might have sat that way for hours had it not been for the huge shiver that coursed through her. Daniel had the foresight to dismount and drape his cloak over her shoulders but the second the warmth encased her, Rosemary jerked and cowered in fear.
‘Are you hurt? Do you need a doctor?’ Daniel asked her softly.
‘I am fine, just cold and tired,’ Rosemary murmured with a smile. ‘Thank you.’
Daniel patted Luke companionably on the shoulder before remounting his horse. Rosemary tucked the edges of the cloak around her shoulders and huddled closer to Luke’s warmth.
‘Come on, let’s go,’ Luke whispered.
Rosemary regretted having to move even though the ground was making her shiver even more. She was so cold she struggled to control the wracking shivers threatening to overwhelm her. It was difficult to even think of anything except Luke. When he had gently coaxed her to stand up, he swept her into his arms. Within seconds, she was sitting atop his horse with Luke behind her. Again, he wrapped his arms around her and settled her more tightly against him.
‘Come on, let’s get you home,’ he murmured eyeing her cold toes. There was nothing he could do about them for now except keep the rest of her as warm as possible.
‘There is another rider coming,’ Joshua announced, nodding toward the fields behind them.
‘Let’s go,’ Daniel ordered.
‘You two go. We will be all right,’ Luke offered.
‘Are you sure?’ Daniel asked.
Luke nodded. Within seconds, his colleagues disappeared in different directions to circle around their new quarry.
‘Where are they going?’ Rosemary asked as she watched the men ride expertly across the fields.
‘They are going to see who that is and what they are doing out here at this time of night. It is highly unusual that someone is riding out here so soon after it has been raining, and across fields like this,’ Luke explained with another worried look after his friends.
‘Do you want to go after them? I don’t mind making my own way back to the house.’ It was instinctive to want to call it her home because it was, but she didn’t want to sound that presumptuous. While she dreaded the thought of having to walk several miles to get there, she would if it meant that Luke was able to catch Morton and put him behind bars.
‘No, we are going home,’ Luke promised. ‘That is what Wickerstone is to both of us now, Rosemary. It is home. It is our home.’
Rosemary rested her head against his shoulder. ‘No, it isn’t,’ she whispered eventually.
‘No? Don’t you think that you could consider the house your home too? Why not? Don’t you like it?’ Luke scowled heavily.
Rosemary smiled up at him. She lifted a finger to trail it slowly down the deep grove between his eyes. ‘The house is a building. We have both only started to get to know it. It will become a home when we have filled it with our memories, and the small things that make us who we are,’ Rosemary replied. ‘Home really isn’t a place; a location; not really. A home, a true happy home, is a place where you can live. Home is you, really. If you are a home wrecker not a home maker you will never truly make your own home because you will rarely be there, you will always find somewhere else to be. A home, a true home, is somewhere you make your own and want to spend time in. Without you in it, there can be no home. My home is with you, I know that now. After tonight, even Wickerstone is like an empty promise. It is the husk of a future we can fill with whatever we want, different parts of ourselves, different things we like. It will be a home when we are there to share it and make memories in it. Then it will be a home, our home. Home is not the property. It’s the people who live in it. It’s us. For me, my home will always be with you.’
‘God, I love you,’ Luke groaned. ‘I hadn’t ever really thought about it like that, but I suppose that is why I purchased the house but still felt that something was missing. I was ready to settle down but was going to try to turn it into a house that a wife would want to share with me one day. I never stopped to contemplate that maybe leaving it as an unpainted canvas would give us the chance to create our own home, together.’ Luke smiled adoringly at her. ‘You are very clever.’
Rosemary’s lips twitched. ‘I just know that I faced the very real possibility that I wasn’t going to see you or father again. I wasn’t a person to Morton. I was something he could use, something he could barter with. When I looked back at the house, it wasn’t the property I felt the loss of but the people in it. You. My father. When I am there, the house feels like home, but only because I know you are coming back to it. I know that it wouldn’t feel like home if you were not there to share it with me. I want that, more than anything; a home I can share with you, Luke.’
‘Marry me,’ he whispered.
Rosemary shook her head and looked regretfully at him. ‘I don’t want you to ask me on a whim, just because you think it will secure our future or protect me in some way. It isn’t necessary.’
‘Do you think that you might be happy to be my wife at some point?’ Luke asked, trying hard not to be too hurt by her rejection.
‘I know I would,’ Rosemary assured him. ‘Why do you think I immediately set to work trying to put my own stamp on the place? I think that I wanted you to contemplate sharing your home with me, but I just didn’t have the courage to ask. Now, I know that I want a future with you. I just don’t want you to feel that you have a duty to offer me marriage because you think you have failed me in some way. What happened tonight wasn’t your fault, Luke. Morton had help and had clearly been planning what he did for a while. It was all very carefully orchestrated to make sure that you were distracted at the back of the house while Morton came in through the front. He knew that if he set fire to one door we would have to leave out of the other and was waiting for us when we did.’
‘Is that what happened?’ Luke growled.
‘The smoke coming through the bottom of the back door warned me that I couldn’t go outside through the back d
oor. The French doors in the study are blocked by the boxes, don’t forget. I had to go through the front door to get around to the back. The second I tugged the door open, Morton stepped inside and grabbed me, as if he were waiting for the moment. I don’t think it mattered to him if it was me he grabbed or my father, so long as he had one of us.’
‘Did he say anything to you?’ Luke asked.
‘He just told me that I was going to go with him and warned me that screaming was futile,’ Rosemary replied.
‘Did he seem to know what we were doing? Did he know that we had caught his arsonist friend?’
‘I don’t know. I was shocked, Luke. While I was worried, I knew that you were at the back of the house so didn’t really think that there would be any danger. I didn’t think that Morton would be so bold as to stand on the front doorstep, but he did, and I was snatched. I am just relieved that it was me he snatched because I don’t think that my father could have gone through this.’
‘Your father has many years left in him yet,’ Luke assured her.
‘I know, but my father is a master craftsman who Morton really doesn’t seem to like very much,’ Rosemary argued. ‘It is my father Morton has been trying to damage remember.’
‘You think Morton would have killed him by now,’ Luke said, knowing it was true.
Rosemary nodded. ‘I am glad you came to rescue me.’
‘I had no choice. When you didn’t appear like we expected we knew something was wrong. By the time we fetched the horses and came after you, Morton was already a long way away. We have spent the better part of the night chasing around trying to find you. It has been one of the longest nights of my life, and the most fraught.’
‘He can’t have gone too far,’ Rosemary assured him.
‘It hasn’t been fraught because we have been unable to catch Morton. It has been fraught because I have been unable to find you,’ Luke corrected. ‘I know you don’t love me yet and might never be able to feel the way I feel about you, but that doesn’t matter. I adore you. When I realised that you had been snatched, I knew that I had not just lost the women I love, I had lost my future, my happiness, everything that I have ever wanted in life. There can be nobody else for me. Nobody has ever made me feel like this toward them, and I don’t think anybody else can. This is unique. I knew that the second I helped you up in the market square. You are someone special. As someone who works with the Star Elite, I knew that you were in trouble, and that I had to do something to help you. It didn’t occur to me that staying with you that morning was a decision that would change my entire life, and me. I know that we have only known each other for a few weeks but I can promise you that I am of sound mind and know what I feel. I know that this is love, not some brief affection that will fade in time. If it were anything that I should question, I wouldn’t have moved you so readily into the house I had planned to make my home.’