Chapter 13

They had to move fast. The first and most important step was to take care of the jewels. Ford and Hugh delivered them to Her Majesty, who begged them to convey to Jeb and Mariah her overwhelming gratitude. Not only for the returned treasure but that both Jeb and Mariah had survived.

Jeb’s relief was immense when they returned to assure him the jewels were now in the Queen’s hands. A battle between Scotland and England had been thwarted.

His next challenge was to get strength back in his shoulder.

“Hand me my saddlebag, Mariah.”

“Really? You intend to travel?” she asked with a charmingly skeptical look.

“Not without you, I don’t,” he grinned, enjoying her blush. “I just need to lift something heavier than a whiskey bottle.” He nodded toward the bottle he’d been using as a weight to exercise his arm.

“Hm.” She smiled and then broke into a mischievous grin. “Perhaps you might get it yourself?”

He’d been sitting on the bed lifting everything within reach, not brave enough yet to do it while standing.

“Why you imp,” he chortled. “You think I can’t do it?”

“Why of course I don’t think that! A big strapping fellow like you?” she said from the safety of her chair across the room where she sat repairing her riding clothes. “You could probably lift two of those little English saddles at a time, I’d wager.”

She watched him calculate his ability. His eyes went from her to the saddle that sat on the floor next to her chair, then back to her.

“You’re right, I suppose.” Jeb rose from the bed. It took more effort than he expected, but he managed to accomplish it without a wobble. He stepped toward the saddle. “Two, maybe three saddles at a time, I would think.”

“Oh, at least,” she agreed with a devilish laugh.

He stepped slowly across the room, judging with each step whether or not he should attempt the feat.

“Perhaps I might put a couple of those warming pans in the saddlebag? Just to give it a little more heft?” she teased.

“More heft? You think I can lift something more hefty than two, maybe three of those saddles at one time?”

“Oh, undoubtedly.”

“Well then.” He grinned when he reached her side of the room. The saddle lay on the floor to his left, and Mariah sat just to the right. He bent down as if he were going to pick up the saddle, then turned toward Mariah. He grasped the arms of her chair and prayed.

Planting his feet as firmly as he could, he raised the chair—and Mariah—off the floor.

“Jeb! You can’t! Put me down!” she cried. “Put me down this instant!”

He grunted and put her down, doing his best not to rudely drop her.

“You’re right. Whew. That was too much.”

“Well I should say! What were you thinking?”

“I was a fool, wasn’t I? I should have started here.”

With that he let go of the chair and picked Mariah up, cradling her like a baby. “Oh yes,” he muttered. “I should have started here.”

Mariah threw her arms around his neck to take the weight from his shoulder and accidentally bumped the injured one. He groaned, and she shrieked her apology, and then she stilled. She knew that wiggling in his arms only made the strain on his shoulder worse.

Jeb backed up.

“Put me down, Jeb. Please! You’re hurting yourself.”

“I will. If you kiss me.”

“I will not, sir! Put me down this instant.”

“Kiss me.”

“Oh, you beast!”

“Kiss me,” he growled, and he lowered his head until there was nothing for her to do but kiss him.

So she did.

She well and truly did.

. . .

When neither of them could catch their breath any longer, he lifted his mouth from hers and ended the kiss. He let her feet slide to the floor.

“Mariah?” he started to say, then paused when she held up her hand.

“Please, don’t apologize. I don’t want to know that you regret what we share.”

“Regret?” Jeb chuckled. “The only part of what we just did that I might regret was that you almost killed me.”

There was a confused look on her face. “You didn’t find me too . . . brazen?”

He lifted his hand and brushed the backs of his fingers down her cheek. “I found you perfect.”

She lowered her head as her cheeks darkened. “You have become very special to me, Jeb. I wish this were over and we’d survived it.”

“It will be over soon, Mariah. Soon.”

She nodded, then lifted her head and kissed him on the cheek. “Are you ready to get back in bed?”

“No, I think I need to walk off the effects of your kisses.”

She blushed the most endearing smile he’d ever seen—shyness combined with pleasure.

That smile caused something more powerful and more intense to happen inside him than even their kissing had.

And this time he was afraid it had changed him forever.

. . .

Jeb sat in Caleb’s study and watched Mariah pace from window to window. He knew what she was watching for. She was watching for her father’s arrival.

“He won’t find us here,” Jeb said. “He won’t know where we are.”

“Hiding won’t keep us safe,” she answered, looking over her shoulder to where he sat. “We can’t hide forever.”

“Miss MacFarlane is right,” a voice said from the doorway.

Jeb turned to see his father entering the room.

“Father.” Jeb struggled to stand, but his father motioned for him to stay seated.

Caleb, along with Ford and Hugh, followed the Earl of Stafford into the room and walked to the cluster of chairs next to Jeb. The earl motioned for Mariah to join them. After she sat, the men also took their seats.

“What do you think is going to be the outcome of this situation, Jeb?” his father asked.

Jeb closed his eyes. He knew what the outcome might be, but how could he say it aloud with Mariah in the room?

“You know, don’t you?”

“Yes, Father. I know. There’s only one way it can end.”

Jeb slowly turned his gaze to the chair where Mariah sat. A sad smile lifted the corners of her mouth.

“Father will not give up. He’ll follow us until he finds us. And when he realizes he can never get his hands on the jewels again, he will be completely enraged.”

“Which is why you will come home with me,” the Earl of Stafford said.

“Father, that’s too—”

The Earl of Stafford raised a hand to silence Jeb. “Hear me out, son.”

Jeb ran a frustrated hand through his hair but held his tongue.

“One thing I know about your father, Miss MacFarlane, is that he won’t risk public exposure to his deed. He has always—or did always—endeavor to hide his misdeeds. So when he finds you, he won’t confront you on the street. It will be behind doors. And I have a plan to make certain that those doors will entrap him in a snare from which he can’t escape unless he drops his vendetta against you and my son.”

Jeb shook his head. “I won’t go to your house, Father. I refuse to put you and Mother in danger.”

“Your mother has gone to one of your sisters’. She will stay there until this is over. You see, our house is being watched.”

“Of course it would be,” Jeb growled. “That’s the first place MacFarlane would look. And,” he said in a brighter tone, “if they’re already watching for us, then we’ll give them what they want!”

“Exactly.” Jeb’s father grinned. “I will escort you and Miss MacFarlane to our home, and we will make a show of whisking her inside as if we’re hiding her. But she will go immediately through the house and up to the servants’ quarters to stay safe with the women of my staff. The men on my staff insist that they will stay at their posts and assist in any way they can to carry out our ruse.”

Jeb looked at Mariah, and from the heartened look on her face, he could see that she approved of the plan.

“Hopefully, when MacFarlane comes, I will be able to calm him somewhat.”

“I’m not sure that’s possible,” Mariah said. “He’s changed since you last knew him.”

“That may be, but my son knows as well as his friends and I do that you cannot hide forever. If your father is as determined as you say, he won’t give up until he finds you. And as these men know from their service in Her Majesty’s army,” he said, turning his gaze to where the traitors sat, “it’s better to be on the offensive than to have your enemy take you by surprise.”

Jeb knew his father was right. He knew he didn’t have a choice. Neither did Mariah.

The decision was taken out of his hands when Mariah stood. “Please, allow me a few minutes to prepare,” she said, “and I will be ready to leave.”

“Are you sure, Mariah?”

“Of course I’m sure. My father has left us no choice.”