The Bushranger's Wife

by Cheryl Adnams

  And then he was up. Standing upright and holding onto her arms as she struggled to regain her footing from his sudden movement. Her surprise and disappointment was evident in the wide green of her eyes.

  ‘Er, I have to … um, feed the horses.’

  Closing the door behind him he moved quickly across to the stables. Fresh air. Outside. Outside was good. Outside was breathing. Breathing without the heady scent of her filling his nostrils and his mind with lascivious thoughts. D’Artagnan let out a whinny that sounded not unlike a laugh.

  ‘Oh, you think it’s funny, do you?’ he asked his horse. ‘I’d like to see you show as much restraint when faced with such an incredible, alluring girl.’

  Persephone joined D’Artagnan with a very unladylike snort.

  ‘Just whose side are you two on anyway?’

  He delivered their feed and checked their water. ‘Now eat and keep your opinions to yourself.’

  His chores completed, Jack still couldn’t bring himself to go inside just yet. He needed time to cool down. Standing at the stable door, he could see Pru wandering back and forth in front of the windows. Light from the lanterns made her glow and she sang as she cleared the dinner table. His promise to keep his hands to himself, and giving her the space she needed, was going to be harder than he’d expected.

  ***

  He was driving her crazy.

  Frustrated, Pru tossed and turned in the big bed. It was obvious he was still waiting for her to change her mind and run home, but she thought she had made it abundantly clear that she was never going back to Carrington Manor. Even if the police found her and tried to drag her kicking and screaming, she would not go back. Ever.

  And since when had Jack become such a gentleman? He had stolen kisses from her a multitude of times before she’d come to live with him. Now it seemed he didn’t want to touch her at all. She had managed to lure him into a few kisses, but then, before she’d been able to take the kisses further, he would find something he had to do out in the stables. Or he’d say he was tired and run off to his room.

  And she was bored. She couldn’t go to town with him for fear someone would recognise her. She wasn’t allowed to go riding alone. She may as well be back at Carrington Manor for all the freedom she had here. And worst of all, he wouldn’t let her come along and watch him on a robbery. She desperately wanted to see him work. Wanted to experience the thrill of the bail up, from the other side.

  Well, she was having none of it. He would marry her—and soon. She’d make sure of it. As for him letting her watch him work? Well, he didn’t need to know she was watching, did he?

  Chapter 8

  ‘Why are you up so early?’

  The sun hadn’t even risen when Pru, clad in a thick blanket, wandered into the stables as Jack prepared for a dawn robbery.

  ‘I wanted to say goodbye and good luck.’

  His smile was slow, and despite his determination the night before to keep her at a distance, he went to her. Smoothing a hand over her hair, he grasped the back of her neck, leaned in and kissed her forehead.

  Back to the forehead, she thought with some annoyance as he mounted Persephone.

  ‘I’ll be back for breakfast.’

  Watching him ride out the gates of Little Windsor, Pru tossed off the blanket she wore. Little did Jack know that she’d been up and putting her plan into action before he’d even woken. She checked her attire once more. Over the last few days, she’d been stealing some of his clothes and hiding them in her room. This morning she’d risen early, pulled on her manly costume, and covering herself in the blanket so he wouldn’t know, she went out to say goodbye. The clothes were far too big for her, but the belt helped cinch in the trousers so they wouldn’t fall down, and the shirt, that went down to her knees, was tied at the waist. She thanked God that her breasts were small enough to hide beneath the loose shirt. Her riding boots were a little too feminine, but that couldn’t be helped. Jack had feet the size of railway sleepers.

  Shoving her long, bright hair up under the floppy hat she’d found, she opened Misha’s stall and led her out of the stables. She’d already saddled her before Jack had gotten out of bed, knowing he’d never spare her a glance in her end stall.

  Using the nearby fence, Pru hoisted herself aboard Misha and, as quietly as she could, followed Jack down the driveway and out into the darkness of the pre-dawn.

  She followed him for miles. Doing her best to keep enough distance that he wouldn’t hear her horse over his own but staying close enough not to lose him in the darkness. She was relieved when the horizon began to pale and her path was easier to see. Caught up in the beauty of the sunrise, when she looked back at the road ahead she could no longer see Jack.

  ‘Damn,’ she murmured, pulling on the reins to slow Misha down. The road forked and she had no way of knowing which direction he had taken. Deciding to go left, she passed into the shade of an outcropping of rocks. Misha startled as a horse rode out in front of them.

  ‘Who are you and why do you follow me?’ he demanded, his pistol aimed at her as he edged closer.

  The rising sun breached the rocks, and tilting her head back to peek up at him from beneath her hat, she saw the realisation cross his face.

  ‘Pru?’ The shock was evident on his features. ‘I could have shot you. What the bloody hell are you doing here?’

  ‘I want to come with you.’

  He just stared at her. ‘Are you mad? You can’t be a part of this. I’m not taking a woman into a highway robbery.’

  ‘That’s why I dressed as a man,’ she told him. ‘I’ll keep my hat on and I’ll wear a mask.’ She pulled out one of the white linen and lace napkins he’d purchased for the house. ‘Who will know I’m a woman?’

  ‘I’ll know,’ he said, then shook himself. ‘Why am I discussing this with you? You’re not coming. It’s too dangerous. Now go home.’

  Annoyed and determined, she tried a different tack. ‘I thought Jack the Devil had more guts.’

  ‘Is that a dare? Are you daring me to take you along?’

  ‘Perhaps. Are you man enough to take my dare?’

  Frustrated, he swore in a way he’d never done in front of her before. Obviously having a hard time turning down a dare, Jack shook his head.

  ‘I won’t be a bother,’ she said, hating the pleading tone in her voice.

  ‘I said no.’

  Temper threaded through her at his definitive tone.

  ‘You don’t own me, Jack,’ she said. ‘You can’t force me to do anything. I’ll just follow you.’

  ‘You test a man’s patience.’

  She gave him her pleading pout. ‘I swear I’ll keep my distance.’

  He made a groaning sound deep in his throat and she was sure he was going to send her away.

  ‘God save me from independent women,’ he muttered, and turning his horse he set off at a canter down the left fork in the road.

  Proud of her flirtatious negotiation skills, she gave Misha a good strong kick and took off after him.

  The sun was still low and flickered through the trees that lined the road when Jack and Pru came upon two men on horseback.

  ‘Jack,’ one of them greeted him with a handshake.

  None of them dismounted, but Pru could see the shock on the two men’s faces as she rode up behind Jack. One of the men looked to be about Jack’s age, with short, dirty blond hair and a pleasant face. The other was younger, tall and lanky, and had long, scraggly hair as dark as midnight.

  ‘Who’s this?’ the blond man asked.

  ‘This is Pru.’ She loved the ease with which he used her shortened name. ‘Pru, this is Bobby and Garrett.’

  ‘What’s she doin’ ‘ere?’ Garrett gave her a look of distaste.

  ‘She followed me.’

  ‘From where? Buckingham Palace?’ he growled. ‘Who wears pearl earrings to a hold-up?’

  Heat rushed into her cheeks as she quickly removed the tiny pearl drops from her ears and shoved them in
to the pockets of her corduroy trousers. Blast and damnation! She must have put them on by habit while she’d been dressing.

  ‘Jack, we can’t have a girl come along on a robbery?’ Bobby tried.

  ‘And why not?’ she asked prissily.

  ‘Because it’s bad luck, that’s why.’ Garrett shot back. ‘Now bugger off home, little girl, and leave the bushranging to the men.’

  Finger raised, eyes firing, Jack glared at Garrett. ‘Don’t speak to her like that.’

  ‘You bring your bit of skirt along to a robbery?’ Garrett shot back. ‘You’ve gone bleedin’ insane.’

  ‘You don’t seriously expect her to be a part of this?’ Bobby asked, a little less antagonistic than Garrett. ‘Sorry, Miss, but bushranging is no place for a lady.’

  ‘She’ll be observing only,’ Jack said and moved his horse closer to Garrett and Bobby, trying to ensure she wouldn’t hear him. But in the quiet of the morning she heard every word.

  ‘Just let her watch. Once she sees it’s no place for a woman, she’ll be done with this lunacy and we’ll have only had to deal with it for a day. She doesn’t even have a weapon —’

  ‘Yes, I do,’ she interrupted and pulled out the little percussion pistol she’d stashed in her trousers.

  ‘Where did you get that?’ Jack snapped, his tone caught between irritated and horrified.

  ‘I found it in the house.’

  ‘Stop waving it about before you shoot one of us,’ he told her. He grabbed for the pistol but she was quicker and pulled it out of reach. ‘You do not get to have a gun.’

  ‘And why not?’

  ‘Christ, you ask so many questions.’

  ‘I need to protect myself, don’t I?’

  ‘That old thing hasn’t been fired in years,’ he said. ‘Besides that, do you even know how to fire a gun?’

  ‘How hard can it be?’ she asked, aiming the little pistol at a nearby tree and pulling the trigger. The sound reverberated through the forest. Birds took flight, the horses spooked and before she knew what had happened, Jack had relinquished her of her gun.

  ‘She’s gonna end up shooting one of us!’ Garrett called out, dusting his coat of the tree bark that had flown when the ball had struck.

  ‘Time’s wasting,’ Bobby tossed in, checking his pocket watch. ‘The carriage will be here any minute.’

  Jack exhaled a whoosh of frustrated breath. ‘It’s too late to send her home now.’

  He turned to her. ‘Pru, you have to stay out of the way, do you understand? No matter what you see or hear, do not speak, do not move.’

  She nodded, excitement overtaking her displeasure at being scolded.

  ‘Be it on your head then, Jack, if she gets hurt,’ Garrett tossed back with a shake of his head and a look of disgust aimed at her.

  They rode together to the dry riverbed Bobby had scouted as the best place for an ambush. The carriage would have to slow down to traverse the small gulch Pru realised, making it easy for the bushrangers to block.

  ‘Get behind those rocks and stay there,’ Jack instructed her.

  As the carriage came closer, her heart began to pound in her chest, the pulse of it in her head matching the hoof beats of the team of horses. Crossing glances with Jack as he pulled the kerchief into place across his nose and mouth, there was a powerful tug in her lower belly. The thrill she felt was mirrored back at her in his gold eyes. Thrill mixed with something else, something more primal. She held there, fixed in his gaze for a second and then it was all movement. With Jack in the lead, they rode their horses into the path of an oncoming carriage.

  ‘Stand and deliver!’

  A shiver ran down her spine at the deep and authoritative command in Jack’s voice, as he pointed his gun at the coach driver. She knew she shouldn’t be so fascinated with this display of thievery, but she couldn’t help it. Wide-eyed she watched the three men bail up the carriage and its occupants with the expert precision and timing of men who had worked together for years.

  They went for the obvious prizes, the gentleman’s billfold, the earrings and necklace the lady wore. Jack was the picture of politeness and his suave, devilish conversation took her back to the day he’d robbed her and her grandmother, to the day she’d first met Jack the Devil. What she had begun to recognise as arousal ran through her at his smooth voice, and her belly lurched again when he turned and winked at her. She licked her lips beneath the linen napkin she wore across her mouth.

  Looking away to save her sanity, she noticed Garrett was almost done with the trunk but had very little to show for it. He’d claimed a few baubles, but one look at the finery the lady seated in the carriage wore, and Pru knew she had more expensive adornments than what Garrett had found in that velvet jewellery case.

  Realisation struck. They didn’t know. They weren’t aware of the secret places women hid their most valued possessions.

  Almost bouncing with excitement, Prudence cleared her throat loudly. Garrett turned to glare at her, getting set to close the trunk.

  ‘Got a furball there, kitty cat?’ he shot at her.

  She shook her head vigorously. She knew she couldn’t speak out loud. A woman’s voice would not easily be forgotten by those who were being held up.

  Garrett glowered. ‘What’s your problem?’

  She pointed at her shoes, trying to make him understand.

  ‘Jack, I think … er … our guest robber,’ Garrett didn’t know what else to call her it seemed, ‘has a question. Maybe you can figure out what, er … he wants.’

  Impatiently, Jack turned to look at her. ‘What is it?’

  She waved him over.

  Rolling his eyes, he went to her. ‘What? Can’t you see we’re a little busy here?’

  She leaned down from her seat on the horse to whisper in his ear. ‘Look in the lady’s shoes.’

  He frowned at her like she’d gone mad, but she nodded fervently.

  ‘Open that trunk again,’ he called out to Garrett.

  ‘What in blazes for?’ Garrett argued. ‘We looked in that trunk. There’s nothin’ there!’

  ‘Just do it,’ Jack insisted.

  Swearing and grumbling, Gareth opened the trunk. Jack walked across and digging through the trunk, he pulled out one of the fancy satin slippers. Pushing his fingers into the shoe, he froze before glancing across to where she was grinning like a cat that got the cream beneath her lace-edged mask. She could see it in his eyes that his grin matched hers when he pulled out his hand, opening it to show diamond earrings, a ruby necklace and a choker of pearls with one of the largest sapphires she had ever seen.

  ‘Sweet Mary and Joseph,’ Bobby said, his eyes as wide as saucers as he stared at the gems in Jack’s hands.

  ‘How dare you?’ the gentleman in the carriage was leaning out now. ‘Put those back. Haven’t you taken enough?’

  ‘You are correct, sir, we have taken enough of your time and your goods,’ Jack agreed. ‘Be on your way and have a safe journey.’

  ‘Safe journey!? Safe journey!’

  The man was still blustering as the coach driver pulled away but Bobby and Garrett were laughing and whooping as they examined their loot.

  Jack walked back to where Pru sat on her horse. She’d behaved. She hadn’t moved from where he’d told her to stay. But she had contributed to the haul and felt a heady sort of power in it.

  ‘My, my,’ Jack said, removing his kerchief now that the coach was at a far enough distance. ‘Quite the clever little bushranger aren’t you, Miss Prudence.’

  She couldn’t help the smug smile when she removed her own mask.

  ‘That was incredible!’ she laughed, throwing her arms in the air before she threw herself from her horse and into Jack’s arms. He caught her easily and held her for a moment, cradled against his body. The look in his eye told her he was about to kiss her before he seemed to remember Bobby and Garrett, who were now watching with interest and he let her feet fall to the ground.

  ‘How’d you know
to look in the shoes?’ Garrett asked, eyes narrowed.

  Her smug smile returned as she addressed them. ‘My dear gentlemen, women have been hiding their most precious items in their shoes for years. Travelling by boat, there were plenty of opportunists who liked to help themselves to what was easily available in cabins and trunks. But no man would ever think to look at a lady’s shoes.’

  When she glanced back at Jack, his expression held amusement and pride.

  ***

  ‘Take the goods back to town and see Jones,’ Jack instructed his men as they all remounted their horses.

  ‘We’re not going to town?’ Pru asked, looking disappointed.

  ‘No, I’m taking you home,’ Jack said waving Bobby and Garrett off.

  Pru was practically bouncing in the wake of the thrilling encounter and Jack couldn’t help but chuckle.

  ‘Is it always like this?’ she asked.

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘This … I have all this energy.’

  ‘Your blood is up,’ he explained. ‘You’ll calm down eventually. It’s a combination of the thrill and the fear. It makes one feel intoxicated for a while.’

  ‘Intoxicated,’ she repeated. ‘Let’s get drunk. I’ve never really been drunk, but if this is what it feels like …’

  He chuckled some more as she repeated every step of the heist from her point of view. They rode at a relaxed pace through the bush and Pru continued to ask questions at such a rapid-fire rate Jack didn’t feel the need to attempt to answer, even if he could get a word in edgewise. She was positively buzzing and it amused him.

  ‘Oh, I feel like I’ll explode if I don’t expend some of this,’ she said, a gleam coming into her eye.

  Jack always felt a little sexually aroused after a bail up, and seeing the flush in Pru’s cheeks, and the fact that she couldn’t sit still on her horse, had him wondering if she was a little aroused as well. Considering she was a virgin, he doubted she’d understand the warmth that rushed through the body to settle in the lowest parts of a woman’s anatomy, or the tightening of her nipples that he could now see straining against the man’s shirt she wore. His shirt. The cotton pressed tight against her lovely bosom. Realising he was staring at the outline of her body in his borrowed clothes, suddenly it was he who was unable to sit still in his saddle.