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.Unfortunately for him, however, John was a precise, almost professional, fighter.He stopped just before the man, his long arm flashing out and jabbing the shorter man in the eye.Mapes’s head snapped back, and he staggered.John came in with a blow to his midsection, followed by a solid right fist to Mapes’s chin.The man’s eyes rolled up, and his body went limp.He weaved and crashed to the ground.“Good,” John said to Priscilla, who had followed on his heels.“The extra lantern will come in handy.”He picked it up and handed it to Priscilla, then pulled up the wooden bar across the door.He opened the door cautiously, just in case Will had managed to get free of his bonds.He relaxed when he saw the man still lying bound and gagged.He turned back and grabbed the limp Mapes under his shoulders and began to drag him into the shed.Priscilla hurriedly set down the lantern and moved to pick up the man’s heels.They pulled the heavy weight into the shed and left him on the earthen floor beside his friend.Quickly they went back out and pulled the door to, dropping the heavy wooden bar across it to secure it.“There.I think that takes care of those two until we get back.” John turned and held out his hand toward Priscilla.“Shall we go?”Priscilla glanced at the shack.“I— Do you think we should leave him bound like that? Mightn’t it cut off his blood?”“Now you’re worried about your kidnapper’s health?” John shook his head, amused.“My dear girl, you are going to have to become more callous if you keep hanging about these types.”Priscilla made a face at him.“May I remind you that it was not I who brought those two here?”“Mm… Fair hit.Well, do not worry.Mapes is unbound.Presently he will come to, and can untie his friend’s bonds.Then they can wait and think about how much they have lost through associating with a ‘gentleman’ like Benjamin Oliver.By the time the constable comes to get them, I warrant they will have remembered every possible sin they know about him.”He picked up the lantern that Priscilla had set aside and relit the one he had brought.They started back the way he had come.As they walked, their steps grew slower.John slipped his arm around Priscilla to help her, and she leaned into him, sighing.“Tired?”“Mm-hmm… Are you sure this is the way back?”“Yes.There’s that little glade ahead of us.See?” He held the lantern higher, partially illuminating the small clearing cut off on one side by a large fallen tree overgrown with moss.“Oh, yes.We came through here that first day, when we found the hut.”He nodded and guided her over to the large log.“Here.Sit down and rest a little.”Gratefully Priscilla sank to the ground and leaned back against the tree.She sighed.It had been a long and tiring day.“I should not have gone to call on Anne,” she said quietly.“I didn’t think about Will and Mapes being about.I was simply so irritated with you…”He looked down at her.“I know.When I got home, I wasn’t sure whether to strangle you or run out looking for you.Then, when you didn’t return…” He pulled his features into a frown.“Don’t do that to me again.Do you hear?”“I won’t—as long as you don’t cut me out of all the fun.”“Fun? It was anything but.It was boring and tiresome and utterly useless.Besides,” he admitted, “it was no fun without you.”“There.You see?”“I was trying to protect you.To keep you safe.I didn’t want you there if I ran into Will and Mapes again.I didn’t want you to get hurt.”“You see how well going without me ensured that,” Priscilla pointed out sarcastically.“Only because you were so damnably stubborn that you went sailing off somewhere by yourself, just to spite me.”“I wanted to visit Anne.”“Why? What was so urgent that it couldn’t wait until I could escort you?”“Escort me? You think I cannot go anywhere without your escorting me? I should sit in the drawing room twiddling my thumbs until you are available to take me where I want to go?”“Only until those men were put away.Now they will be, so it will be perfectly all right.”Priscilla gave him a long, cool look.“Men!” she commented, but her pose of regal indignation was spoiled by the long, jaw-popping yawn that seized her.John chuckled.“Here,” he said, leaning forward and taking off his jacket.He folded it up and put it down on the ground for a pillow.“Lie down and rest.You are exhausted.”“But it is so late.Papa will be frightfully worried.”“I don’t think it will harm your father to spend a few hours inhabiting the world the rest of us do.You are so tired you will never make it all the way back to your house if you don’t rest.A little nap will refresh you.” He patted the ground beside him.“I shall wake you before long.”“All right.” Priscilla could see the force of his argument.She felt as if she could not take another step.Even the invigorating little discourse with John had not revived her enough to set out walking again.She slid down until she was lying on the ground and turned onto her side.Then she closed her eyes and fell immediately asleep.John sat gazing down at her.He brushed his hand across her cheek, easing a strand of hair away from her face.She stirred in her sleep and squirmed backward, until her back was flush against his legs.She snuggled into him.Heat flooded him at the feel of her, warm and pliant, against him.He told himself that he was a cad for thinking the things he was thinking, especially after the ordeal Priscilla had been through.But then he remembered the way she had kissed him in the shed, when their passion had overflowed its bounds and swept them away.He found that once he started thinking about that moment, it was difficult to think about anything else.John stirred restlessly, shifting his position.He wondered what it would be like to have Priscilla lying beside him every night, to wake up to her each morning.It sounded like heaven to him.He wanted her, and he was beginning to realize that he wanted her always and forever, not just for the moment, not just to satisfy the lust that gnawed at him whenever he was around her.The more he thought about it, the less sure he was that his lust for her could be satisfied so quickly and easily.He suspected that it might plague him for the rest of his life, that as soon as his thirst for her was slaked, it would spring up again.It struck him that what he was thinking about was marriage.What else lasted for a lifetime? The thought was amazing.He had known Priscilla for such a short time.Yet he could not deny that the thought of being married to her was quite pleasant.They must give it a little time, he supposed, must make sure of their feelings.He might know what he wanted, but he knew he could not assume that Priscilla felt the same way about him.After all, she was a gently reared girl, not used to… He frowned
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