He sighed. "I haven't been fair to you, Adeline."
"Darien, we've always been honest with each other. We need to talk."
"I suppose you are right. Have I put off your aunt? Has she retired?"
Adeline shrugged delicately. "I'm afraid she has little humor nor does she seem to understand the intricacies of relationships. I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of having a tray sent to her room."
Darien came to his feet, held out his arm.
"Let's go have a late dinner, shall we?"
She nodded. "Yes, I think it will be the perfect opportunity to discuss the future."
Darien led Adeline into the dining room, saw her seated then took his own seat.
"You are right, of course," he conceded.
"Yes, Darien, the future will be decided tonight." She tilted her head, smiling at him. "You have been such a good friend. Gilbert would be so grateful for how you have let me lean on you." She fell silent as Merina brought in a platter of stuff quail, followed by several trays fresh greens. "But I think the time has arrived that I find my own feet."
"You will do as you think best," he said.
"Yes, Darien. And so shall you."
#
The horse whickered softly, nuzzling into the familiar scent of the man beside him, lips waffling, seeking a carrot or a handful of sweetened oats.
"In good time, my friend. We have work to do."
If the animal was disappointed, he knew he could trust his master to take care of him later. Willingly, he accepted the bitless bridle, waited patiently as the simple saddle was fitted over his back, then walked eagerly out of his enclosure. He didn't grunt when the girth was tightened or balk when burlap was tied around his fetlocks -- it was a familiar ritual.
He knew his master of old, knew they had a mission to undertake. He was ready when the first touch of heels bade him to fly, and fly he did, his large hooves covering the familiar ground with barely a sound in the hush of night.
Like apparitions from Hell, horse and rider traveled unnoticed through the night, a torment of longing riding with the man.
#
Mandine waited until Rufus disappeared into the night, then she turned to Elise.
"What came of this night?" queried the old woman.
"Nothing wonderful," Elise said glumly. "It was presumptuous of me to go over there. I can't believe I let you persuade me." Elise reached her arms behind her, trying to undo the dress. Mandine moved her fumbling fingers aside, began to deftly undo the button and hook closures.
"Are you certain it is as dismal as you think?"
Elise stepped from the dress, her fingers caressing its delicate softness before letting the fabric slide to the bed. Reaching for her own clothes, she pulled on her jeans and a blouse Mandine found to replace her own damaged shirt.
"I'm more certain than ever that he wants nothing to do with me, if that's what you want to know." She sat down wearily, dropping her hands between her knees and putting her head back. Slowly, she rolled her head on her neck, trying to ease some of the tension. "I really don't want to talk about it now. I feel as low as I can get."
"Elements change with a new moon," offered Mandine.
Elise shrugged, releasing her hair from what remained of the knot on her head, letting it fall across her shoulders.
"Maybe." Lithely, she rose and walked across the room. Bending over, she reached for her sneakers and pulled them on. Decisively, she turned back to Mandine. "I need to think. I'm going for a walk."
"If you walk down the road to the lake, you will find it relaxing. The moon lights the road." Elise left the cottage. She felt so charged up she had to walk off some tension or explode.
When she got this tense, Elise knew she could expect those terrifying pains. She had no painkillers to keep the pain at bay and hoped to waylay such an episode by taking a relaxing walk.
Elise walked along the moon-lit road, the air warm -- almost swirling about her. She could see the hint of silver glinting off the water, the lake of which Mandine spoke. She thought back to the time she discovered she had a heart problem. Her doctor had recommended she seek out a specialist for her constant tiredness. The specialist had conducted a series of tests, discovering that she had a hole in her heart. He had been amazed that it hadn't bothered her as a child.
Elise plunked herself down on the grassy verge of the lake, dropping her head forward to run curled fingers through the heaviness of her hair.
At that time in her life she'd been twenty, under a lot of stress, trying to go to school to earn a teaching degree and raise a daughter at the same time. Elise had neglected doing anything about the discovery of the hole in her heart. The idea of surgery and being put to sleep absolutely terrified her.
Only a few years ago, her daughter had come home from school to find her collapsed on the kitchen floor. When Elise had come to, she was in the hospital and had already been operated on. The hole in her heart had been repaired, but apparently, that had been the least of her problems.
One of the valves in her heart was abnormally narrow, thus decreasing the blood flow. The doctors had questioned her on her medical history, inquiring if she'd had rheumatic fever as a child. Elise hadn't known what they were talking about, and since no medical history existed, they didn't know how the damage had initially occurred.
Once out of the hospital, she had avidly read everything available on heart conditions. In the end, the answer hadn't been found in a book. Elise was convinced that coming through time had somehow put stress on a body perhaps already weakened, and thus created the heart problem.
Her doctor had offered her the option of having a valve replacement performed, but Elise had not wanted to go through another operation. She had pills to help when the pain became unbearable -- except that now they were somewhere on the mountainside where she'd entered this time.
She stared up at the deep blackness of the star-laden sky, her eyes skimming over the full moon, thoughts running round and round in the turmoil of her mind.
She felt a lot of confusion, and thinking about the situation with Darien made her want to give up. The wall between them seemed insurmountable.
With resignation and no little weariness, Elise came to her feet. Dusting off her jeans, she looked out over the water, seeing faint ripples from perhaps fish or turtles. The woods to her right were dark and deep, and suddenly appeared menacing with odd shadows lurking at the edge.
She turned from the lake, quickened her pace, hearing something moving behind her. With a heavy thumping in her chest, Elise began to run. She heard a muffled clop and turned her head to see a shadowy rider and horse.
She zigzagged off the road, forcing her legs to move faster. The dark cloaked figure and horse were upon her, swooping forward and down like the devil himself. Strong hands grabbed her, pulling her upwards so that her feet dangled helplessly above the ground.
"No! No!" Elise kicked out.
Immediately, the horse reared, then came down as her captor controlled the animal.
"You!" she said, trying to twist from his grasp.
"Throw your leg over the saddle," the male voice said in a deep guttural whisper.
Elise looked behind them and saw two shadows, mounted riders, emerge from the woods.
"Hurry. You do not want to draw their attention."
Elise saw the riders circling Mandine's small cottage down the road.
"But what about Mandine?"
The man at her back gave a short laugh. "They will not best that one. Hurry before they see you."
Elise threw her leg over the saddle, looking back as they moved away from the other two riders. Once in the cover of the woods, the horse broke into a canter. The ground flew under them with terrifying speed.
Elise pushed her flying hair from her face, staring in horrified fascination as they rode fast through the woods. She could barely see the path before them and the further they went into the woods, the darker it became. With the moon obscured by
clouds, the black night engulfed them.
Chapter Four
Hysteria bubbled at the back of Elise's throat. Twice in one week! When had living here become so dangerous?
The arm around her waist was a muscled vise. She didn't even try to struggle. Thoughts of escape raced, but she feared falling to the ground and being crushed under the immense horse.
The moon appeared briefly but nothing looked even vaguely familiar. The village where Mandine's cottage lay was far behind them. They weren't even on the road anymore, but were weaving a seemingly drunken path through a heavily wooded area. What if the other riders found them? Their pace began to slow.
"Let me down." Stiffly, she sat up straighter. "Why would you think you can carry a woman off as if she has not say about it!"
She was tired. For a moment she even leaned back, but when she came in contact with his chest it reminded her of her earlier abduction and she jerked upright once more.
They slowed to a walk.
Immediately, Elise threw her leg over the saddle and tried to drop to the ground. He caught her, the tightness of his arm pulling her blouse up under her breasts as she slid several inches. Eyes wide, Elise looked at her bared stomach, then twisted and squirmed, attempting to get loose.
"I think not."
He must have released the reins, because both arms pulled her upwards, bringing her even closer to him than before.
"Where are we going?"
"Somewhere safe," the voice, barely above a whisper, rasped across her ears. "We are almost there."
"This is ludicrous. And why is your voice different?" She rejected a shiver as his breath whispered over her skin. "Have you been following me since I got here?" she demanded, rejecting the spear of attraction. She had not felt an attraction during their first meeting, and they'd spent many hours riding. Why now?
"Take me back to Mandine's." She made a rude sound. "If you think for one minute I'm an idiot to be swayed by some romantic moonlit night or --"
She thought she heard an exasperated chuckle, and she suddenly realized he had pulled off his concealing mask, but it was dark, the moon hidden, so she could see nothing. All thoughts ground to a halt as his mouth swooped down on hers, suffocating . . . then with a delicious heat. If his intent was to stun her to silence, it worked.
#
Darien became trapped in his own cleverness as he sought to silence Elise. Her lips, which had been intent on thoroughly chastising him, turned soft and pliant, creating in him the need for a deeper exploration. His actions had not been planned, and yet now he felt that this was inevitable.
How many years had this desire for Elise eaten at him? He'd wallowed in bitterness and regrets and tried to excise her from his memory. She was no longer the girl he'd loved, but a woman who had matured with time as he had. Her body pressed against him recalled that last night, her breathy cries, his own sense of wonder. Why had everything been lost?
The fire in Elise was instant, burning like a match set to dried tinder. Elise lifted her arms and encircled his neck, her fingers in his hair, feeling the band that kept it pulled back.
There was no time for thought -- all she knew was that something in her was answered by a basic need in him. The burning within raged. She was unmindful that this man who had grabbed her in the dark of night was a stranger, whom she suspected was the Hellhound. She hadn't even seen his face. The scent of him, the fresh hay and the night mist curled around her. His arms were hard but gentle in their capture, embracing her, yet allowing no escape.
Elise had gone without the searing touch of desire for so long, she felt overwhelmed by her own raging needs.
However, coming to a sense of what she was doing, she pulled back, placing her palm against his chest as the horse beneath them came to a standstill.
He dismounted, his hands settling around the slimness of her waist as he pulled her from the horse. Elise set her feet firmly on the ground and moved back from him.
How could this happen? She had risked everything to return to this time in the hope of finding Darien.
"This is not what I want," she said, angry at herself, angry at him. "You're presuming too much."
"You are correct. I have presumed too much," he whispered. "Come." He led the horse into a small barn. "It is not safe out here."
"So you say. Why would I think I'm safe with you in this barn?" she asked smartly, worried about her lack of control.
"The countryside is rife with trouble these days. I am the least of your worries."
She strained her ears to hear his low whisper in the dark. "What is this place? I could be in Mandine's cottage, warm by the fire, and you've brought me to a drafty barn."
When he did not immediately speak she wondered if her exasperation finally got through to him. Elise felt about in the dark and sat on a small mound of hay. "How could I have forgotten? Men think they can tell a woman what to do in this time. I was better off where I was."
"Have you always been this quarrelsome?" his voice was tinged with surprise.
Elise watched his shadowy movements as he removed the saddle and bridle from his horse. As he closed the horse in one of the stalls, she said, "Are you always in the habit of abducting women?" And kissing them, but she could hardly bring that up since she'd gone along with that for many mad moments. She still felt the tingle of his mouth on hers.
"It is only for tonight, and I might remind you, for your safety."
"So you say." She felt around the hay and patted it, trying to get comfortable. "It's been a long day and I am totally exhausted, otherwise I'd challenge you further for grabbing me off the road." She yawned.
Elise heard a rustling, then he lay the heaviness of his cloak beside her.
"Thank you." She curled up on the voluminous cloak and yawned again as she pulled it around her. "You can be sure we'll talk in the morning." She sat up."I want to know why your voice is so different from the first time we met."
"I was suffering a cold," he said.
"I'm not stupid," she snapped.
"Is this better?" he asked, and this time the voice was as she had heard it the first time.
"Something's not right -- more than you grabbing me in the night, that is." She settled back on the lumpy hay, trying to get comfortable.
Somewhere in the realm between waking and sleeping, Elise tried to conjure Darien's face, the young man as she knew him many years ago, but his features had faded. Did her foolish actions tonight threaten her memory of what they once had?
"Darien," she whispered, then caught her breath when she realized she'd said it aloud. What she had desired for so long, the opportunity to find Darien again, was not working out as she'd hoped.
#
Darien watched over her as was his role this night. The Hellhound took care of those in danger, it is what the nightly excursions involved. Never had he expected to see Elise again after all this time. She had disappeared that night, long ago. It had been a strange night, full of rolling mists that moved across the mountain. He'd never seen such a strange bluish light in the sky as he had that night. It had started out so well, their plans in place for the entire future before them. And then Elise had run off. No explanation, no last kiss. Mandine had come for her and that had been the last he'd seen her, until this week. The young girl he adored, whom he would have protected with his life, had vanished.
And now she was back, and already he had responded to the force of the connection between them. How could it still be so? Half a lifetime had come and gone, a lot of living, much of it he wished to forget. As the sun crept up over the trees, it began to find its way through the barn boards, slanting golden spears of light across the straw strewn floor. It was time to leave, for soon the light would reveal all and he had too much at stake to risk letting the daughter of Rogier Lancaster discover the identity of the Hellhound, the man Rogier sought.
Darien looked one last time at where she lay wrapped in his cloak. How easy it would be to go lie beside her, whisper that all wa
s forgiven. He clenched his jaw. No. He'd paid for that night long ago with three years of hell he'd never forget.
He saddled his horse and led him from the barn. He made no sound, indeed he was versed in moving stealthily about. It's what his life had come to, keeping to the dark as the Hellhound.
#
Elise woke, stretching, feeling wonderfully rested. She turned her head, expecting to see her alarm clock, then bolted upright as she scanned the small barn. Empty.
"It wasn't a dream." Sitting up, she looked around the empty barn as memory trickled into her sluggish brain.
"I don't even know where I am."
She pummeled the lumpy straw beneath the material. His cloak. She stood and lifted the dark cloak from the straw. It was black, the material thick and some type of soft velvet. She put it to her cheek and then quickly wrapped it over her arm.
She cautiously approached the wide barn door. She pulled the latch, but nothing happened. She rattled it, then got angry when she realized the door was locked from the outside. She'd been locked in!
Elise looked around and saw a pile of fence posts in the corner of the barn. She dropped the cloak, and, more furious than she'd ever felt in her life, she picked up one of the posts and repeatedly smashed at the latch until it fell apart.
Reaching forward, Elise put her fingers in the hole. She could just barely touch the latch on the other side. She pulled a splinter from the side of the post and moved it around in the hole until the latch released. Triumphantly, Elise pushed the door outward.
Mandine stood just outside the door, a toothless grin on her face.
Mandine said simply, "I see you are ready to leave." She turned and walked toward the cart with her cow harnessed in front. "Come along, I have many visits to the sick before the day is over."
Openmouthed, Elise didn't at once move. Then her brain clicked and she retrieved the cloak to run after Mandine. She climbed into the cart as Mandine clucked to the cow. The cart lumbered forward.
"How did you find me?"
Mandine just looked at her, the barely discernible line of her brows upraised.
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