Page 7 of To Bed the Bride
He whistled. Only a two-note whistle, and both dogs turned and came to sit at his side. Why hadn’t he done that from the beginning if it was so easy? Why had he thought it necessary to put her through such distress?
“Miss Craig, those are not your sheep. They belong to the Duke of Montrose. In fact, you’re on the duke’s land.”
She’d come farther than she thought.
“Are you very certain they aren’t my sheep?”
“Yes.”
“Then by extension, you’re not my employee.”
He smiled. “Indeed, I’m not.”
She’d sounded imperious and dictatorial, and in a few words this shepherd had made her feel small and petty.
“Will you move your sheep so that I can pass?”
He studied her for several long moments. She half expected him to question her further. Instead, he took a few steps toward her, the dogs accompanying him. When she stiffened he stopped where he was.
“Are you afraid of all dogs or is it just these two?”
“Yours are sufficiently big to warrant some caution.”
“You have the wrong impression of them. They’re exceedingly gentle dogs.”
To him, perhaps. They didn’t look gentle to her.
She shook her head, remaining still. Maud had settled a little behind her, the mare acting as a living bulwark from the rest of the sheep.
The shepherd gave the dogs a command and they remained where they were as he approached her.
“Please make them go away.”
He startled her by putting down the crook and knapsack on the road and moving behind her. When she glanced at him over her shoulder he only smiled once again.
“Trust me, Miss Eleanor Craig of Hearthmere.”
Why should she? He was a stranger to her, one with some degree of arrogance.
When he put both hands on her waist she made a sound too much like a shriek. The dogs stood, ears alert.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m convincing you that they don’t mean to harm you.”
“But you do?”
“Don’t be foolish,” he said.
“Foolish? Please, let go of me.”
“I shall, in just one moment. Sixty seconds, that’s all I ask.”
He was standing much too close and he still had his hands on her waist. They might have been dancing, except that she’d never seen this kind of pairing.
“Call them,” he said.
“What?”
