Free Bones for Bread (The Scarlet Plumiere) by L.L. Muir Page B

said.
    “Lovely to see you again, as well, Stanley.” Then she nodded at the man standing just past the blond. “Everhardt, isn’t it?”
    The man nodded. Stan and Harcourt exchanged a private look, then laughed. The hand about her waist slowly dropped away and she turned to find Ash looming over her, but she refused to take a step back. Instead she glared up into his dark face.
    “Ye’re late!”
    “No, we are not,” he growled. “You were impatient.”
    He said it as if he believed it to be the worst of sins. Considering the way he glared at her bare shoulder, however, it was possible impatience was not the sin he had in mind.
    She followed his gaze, but didn’t right her clothes, rather enjoying the fact she had drawn emotion from him. Heaven knew she’d suffered enough emotion on his behalf.
    “Have you a better idea for getting inside?” she asked.
    He nodded. “ We have.”
    It was the way he’d said we that gave him away. They didn’t intend to let her go with them.
    She shook her head and backed away, then, when he reached for her, she lunged to the side, eluding his grasp.
    He sucked air between his teeth. He didn’t appreciate her defiance, poor man.
    He smoothed his expression, then lunged for her again. She turned the other way, spinning her skirts out of reach just in time.
    She put a tree between them. By the time he got to her side, she was gone again.
    “It’s the skirts, she taunted. Four inches too short keeps a girl from tripping,” she teased. “Perhaps that knowledge will help you someday.”
    His friends laughed quietly, but made no move to help him catch her.
    “I’m going inside,” she announced, then stopped running. With hands on hips, she stood her ground. He stopped only a foot away but left his hands at his sides. While they glared at one another, his friends gathered close.
    “ You will stay with the horses,” he finally said.
    “Five blades are better than four.” She cocked her head, daring him to argue with her reasoning.
    “You would be a liability.”
    She refused to be moved by the gently given statement.
    “I can fight as well as any man,” she assured him. “I’m nay weak.”
    Ash shook his head. “Not weak, no. But a weakness. If they took you, we could do nothing but surrender.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Is it not the same with any of ye? If they threatened the pretty blond,” she nodded toward Stanley, “would ye not also surrender?”
    The blond in question straightened, as if he were offended somehow. But after a moment, he relaxed and nodded.
    “I can make it much easier for you to accept my assistance,” she said with a smile.
    Ash raised a brow.
    “I will simply accept yers . For I will be going inside to collect my brother. Ye may come if ye wish. But we should save our fighting for the enemy, should we not?”
    “Mmm,” was all he said. He took a step back, then reached forward, beneath her skirts.
    Taken completely off guard, and fearful of falling, she threw her weight forward and leaned a hand on his back while he tugged at her layers. She moved both hands to his shoulders as he began to rise with the fabric in hand. Then he quite roughly pulled the back of her dress up before her and tucked it into the band of her waist.
    She looked down to find her legs still covered, though barely. He’d essentially turned her skirts into pantaloons.
    “Like the fishwives,” he said. “And you’ll stay behind me always. One look at your silly legs and I’ll be distracted. Distraction is death. Our first priority is Northwick. You, then your brother. In that order. Do you understand? We will leave you behind if we must. If you insist on coming along, you must be prepared for it.”
    It saddened her to admit it, but he was right. Their friend was their first priority. But it also made her more certain she’d made the right decision to burn the ransom note. Had she not, she believed they would have headed to London to collect money instead of