She leaned against him and they just sat there together, listening to the wind, not saying a word. Blair thought how close she’d come to missing this moment. If she’d had her way, she’d be in Pennsylvania with Alan right now. Alan who was so small, Alan who wasn’t even a doctor yet, and would probably never be as good as Leander was, Alan who didn’t know which end of a gun to hold, Alan who would have probably gone to the sheriff and would never have rescued his wife on his own.
“Thank you for rescuing me,” she said, and she meant for rescuing her from more than just her kidnappers.
Lee moved to look at her, then pushed her away, as if she had turned to poison. “I want you to go sit by that tree,” he said, and there seemed to be a quiver in his voice. “I want to talk to you, and I can’t do it with you so near me.”
Blair was so flattered that she moved to all fours and put her face in front of his. “Maybe you regret leaving on Monday night,” she said, her lips almost touching his.
Lee drew back from her. “Go!” he ordered, and there was a threat in his voice. “I can’t keep watch and do what I want to do to you at the same time. Now, get over there and be still.”
Blair obeyed him, but his words were sending little chills up and down her spine. In a few hours, Taggert would have the sheriff in the mountains and they’d take the outlaws and Lee could hand over Françoise, and then they’d be alone. She thought of their one and only night together, and when she looked up at him through her lashes, she heard him catch his breath.
She was very pleased when he looked away.
>
“I’ve had time to come up with a plan that just might work,” he said, as he looked out across the forest. “What I want you to do is help the woman to escape. Tonight, I’ll say something that could mean I plan to sneak off with Françoise —maybe we could have an argument. I’m sure you could manage that,” he said, as he turned to look back at her. “What the hell!” he gasped as he looked at her.
“My stocking was loose,” Blair said innocently, as she lifted her slim leg and adjusted the tight black cotton garment, wishing with all her might that she were wearing silk. Maybe there was something to Houston’s wardrobe. No doubt Houston had worn nothing but the sheerest of silks on her honeymoon.
“Blair,” Leander said. “You are trying my patience.”
“Mmmmm,” she said, lowering her leg. “What were you saying about an argument?”
Leander looked away, and Blair saw that his hand was trembling. “I said that I want us to stage an argument, and afterward I want you to let Françoise see you put something in my coffee. Make her think that you’re going to make me sleep through the night rather than go to her.”
“You wouldn’t go to her, would you?”
“I’m saving my energy for later,” he said, in such a way, looking at her through his thick lashes, that Blair’s heart began to pound.
Lee looked back at the forest. “I want her to escape. I can tie the knots so that she can get away, but it will take her a couple of hours to work free. And while she’s working them, I plan to run a little errand.”
“While you’re supposed to be sleeping?”
“As far as I can tell, she’s a cautious woman. She doesn’t take too many chances with her life, so I want her to feel safe, that I’m in a drugged sleep and you want her to escape. She didn’t even try to escape when we were travelling up here,” he said, almost as an afterthought.
“It was too steep. She couldn’t have.”
“Did you try to escape out of that box canyon?”
Blair smiled at him. “How did you know that?”
“A wild guess, based on your recklessness and disbelief that anything can harm you. Now, are you willing? Do you think you can give a good performance?”
Blair grinned at him. “We’re here together now because of my extraordinary acting ability.”
He returned her smile. “Go back in now, and listen to Françoise. Make her think that you believe every word she says. Make her think that you’re ready to murder me.”
Blair stood and looked down at him. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you until I get my wedding night,” she said, then when Lee started to rise, she ran back to the cabin, making sure that she raised her skirts high enough to let him see a great deal.
“You can have her for all I care!” Blair shouted at Lee. “You can spend the rest of your life together and I hope you’re both hanged,” she yelled as she ran from the cabin, leaving Leander and Françoise together.
She kept running up the hill, not pausing to look back until she was out of sight of the cabin. Once she was hidden by the trees, she collapsed on the ground and sat there to catch her breath. Below, she could barely see Lee as he began to look for her.
She smiled as she watched him. She was sure that he’d had no idea just how good an actress she could be and that now he was worried that she’d believed what she’d shouted at him. It had been a good fight, long and loud, with lots of anger. Blair had shouted about Lee’s father, about his leaving her on their wedding night, about having taken her away from Alan, about his sister taking the man she’d loved. That one had thrown him. He’d stood there looking at her as if he half believed her.
Now, Blair was out of breath and she wanted to stay away from the cabin long enough to make it look as if she were truly angry. And, too, she wanted to think about where Lee was going tonight. Was this another one of his secret visits? Was their entire life together going to be full of these secret disappearances of his? Would he ever tell her what he was doing that was so private that even his wife couldn’t be told the truth?
As Blair watched the cabin, and saw Leander looking for her, she decided that there had to be a way to make him trust her. She didn’t want to be so ill informed of his life that some woman who didn’t even know him could make her believe that she knew something that his wife didn’t.