Free The Beautiful Stranger by Julia London Page B

needlessly reminded him.
    It is merely a flesh wound
    Och, what foolishness. Kindly remove your coat.
    I will be quite all right until we reach a village. Youd be a much greater help to me if you fetched your carriage. Where is it? he asked, glancing down the road. My carriage? She laughed. I doona have a carriage, sir!
    Then your mount, or whatever the conveyance by which you are traveling today, he insisted testily.
    My conveyance would be my feet.
    Now she was being coy, that was all, and Arthur was in no mood for it. He leaned forward, scorching her with the fiercest scowl he could muster. Madam, I have had a rather long day of it. As you have managed to shoot me and chase my horse away, I should very much appreciate it if you would produce your mode of travel and let us be on with it!
    You should have tethered your horse.
    Arthurs head snapped back with surprise; he clenched his jaw and stared at her, wholly unaccustomed to being spoken to in such a careless manner. Oh yes, he would hand the wench over to the authorities in Perth with absolute glee. Perhaps I should have, he said smoothly. And perhaps you should have announced yourself instead of firing that rusty old pistol! Now where is your horse!
    With the long strip of white cotton dangling from her fingers, the other arm akimbo, the womans pale blue eyes sparkled with feminine ire. Perhaps the shot ruined your hearing, eh? I doona have a horse! Or a carriage! I was waiting for the coach from Crieff when you paused in your little jaunt to rob me!
    I did not Whatever he might have said died on his tongue, because he suddenly realized she was telling the truth. And if she was telling the truth, that meant they were stranded. Stranded! In the middle of a
    bloody wilderness with dusk falling and a mist rolling in. Please God, what had he done to deserve this?
    She realized it at exactly the same moment, he knew, because her eyes grew impossibly round and she murmured, Oh no, before clamping a hand over her mouth in dismay.
    Oh yes, he said, and the absurdity of their predicament all at once struck him as ridiculously funny. If he hadnt known better, he would swear he was an actor in one of the halfpenny plays on Drury Lane. The laughter bubbled up in his chest, spilled out, and he was suddenly laughing so hard that tears blinded him as he struggled out of his coat. Still laughing, he thrust his arm out so that she could bandage it. Have done with it then!
    Bloody wonderful this was. The stranger was insane as well as angry, Kerry thought. Aye, well, he had every right to be angryshe winced as she looked at the wound and motioned to it again. It should be cleaned first, she said, and inclined her head toward a small clearing.
    Still chuckling, the stranger nodded. Kerry moved immediately, picking up her satchel and marching briskly. And she kept moving, past an old stone fence, practically sprinting to a stream she had discovered earlier in her haste to get away from the robber.
    On the streams banks, she fell to her knees and took several deep breaths, completely unnerved by the experience of having just shot someone, particularly when said someone might very well be the worlds most beautiful stranger. Lord God, as if her life could possibly get any worse, this man had to ride into her life like a thief and scare her half out of her wits! How was she to know he was a gentleman? What could she possibly have thought when she saw him stride to her satchel and begin to rummage through it?
    In her haste to hide when she heard him approaching, she had forgotten it. And then she had shot himshot him!
    She plunged the strip of her cotton drawers into the cool water, then wrung the excess moisture from it.
    All right, well, she had shot him because she feared for her life, thank you very much. Thomas had warned her about the highland thievesbut good God, he was hardly a thief! He was a gentleman from England, of all places, who had thought to find the owner of the satchel she had