Page 18 of Beloved Enemy
“We’ll wait here,” he said, his voice low as he tied the destrier to a low-hanging branch.
Reid’s gaze swept the forest, noting the subtle movements of his men as they took their positions, before he faced Charlotte. “Ye can sit now. Relax for a spell.”
“Relax? Right. That should be easy to do.”
Though her remark was imbued with a wee bit of mockery, she didn’t belabor her protest but did as he’d suggested, using the exposed roots of a large oak tree as her seat, leaning her back against the trunk. She sighed wearily and closed her eyes, letting her head fall back as well.
Reid studied her—again—and recalled what he’d imagined was Autumn’s unusual beauty and wondered if people in the future were, for whatever reason or by whatever means, simply more pleasing to the eye. He couldn’t remember having ever met a woman whose physical attractiveness was so blatantly known—and captivating. Charlotte possessed a kind of allure that seemed almost ethereal, as if, indeed, she belonged to a different world entirely.
Without opening her eyes, she reached behind her head and tugged at the band that held her hair together in such a way as to resemble a horse’s tail. She shook her head and combed her fingers through the length of hair, which did not tame the wealthof hair but gave it more volume, until it tumbled down around her shoulders in a cascade of wavy chestnut locks.
Reid swallowed and clamped his teeth, and when she opened her eyes, he could not wrench his gaze from her. Though the forest was shaded and cool, the green of her eyes was bright and made more striking for being framed so magnificently by her red-brown hair.
Charlotte raised a brow, as if to ask why he was staring at her.
Clearing his throat, he sat down also, positioning himself several feet away from her and with a clear view of what seemed a natural path inside the forest. He presented the back of his head to her as he kept watch.
“How long will we have to wait?” She asked.
“I dinna ken,” he replied, knowing it would depend on if or when the other reivers—part of a number she’d mentioned—joined with these known ones.
“But what happens when this...business is taken care of? Where will you go? Or is that what you do? Chase bad guys around?”
“We will return to Kingswood,” he said, dismissing the rest of her queries.
“What is that?”
“Home to the Nicholsons.”
“Like a castle?”
He shrugged. 'Twas a fortress, certainly, well-planned and maintained in that regard, but it wasn’t large enough or wealthy enough to be called a castle.
“Do you think that—?”
“I ken,” he interrupted pointedly, though mildly, barely turning his head on his shoulder, “that when we’re lying in wait of thieves or any villain, we normally do so quietly.”
“Sorry,” she retorted, more aggrieved than remorseful, “I’ve never lain in wait for anyone. I didn’t know there were rules.”
But there is common sense, he responded internally.
She was neither chastised nor subdued, though.
“It’s just that—obviously—I’m a bit of a wreck here, and I was hoping we could discuss some ideas for me to get back home. I thought that maybe we might—what?”
The dark frown he turned upon her had evoked the query. “We?” He challenged.
“Well, yeah. If you recall, I asked at least twice now for you and your friends to...ride off. Or whatever—to just leave me be. But since you refused, yes, we’re now a collective, you and me. I thought maybe because you had some experience in this...phenomena, that maybe you would or could be helpful.”
“I dinna have experience,” he growled through clenched teeth.
“You said you knew a woman who—”
“I spent naught but thirty minutes all told in her company ere she disappeared. I dinna ken about this—your—dilemma.”
She scoffed without humor. “Dilemma? Um, it’s not like deciding between which restaurant to eat at, or whether to take a job offer, or figuring out how to fix a flat tire in the middle of a busy highway. This is—” She paused, searching for the words that might convey the enormity of her situation. “This is more like being stranded on another planet without a map or a way home. I don’t even know how to begin to fix this.”
“Ye ken I do?” He snapped at her.
