Read Online Hannah Howell by Highland Hearts - Free Book Online

writing?”
    “Here is the way to reach my ally—Simon. Also, this tells you what to say so that he kens ye are one with us, an ally as well. He could take you to your family and safety.” He waited until she studied it, then nodded. “Ye have a dirk, aye?”
    “Aye. Do ye?” She struggled to hide her fear.
    “Aye. I have my sword, my bow, and my dagger. I doubt I shall use any of them. S’truth, I dinna plan to let them draw that close to me.” He smoothed his hand over her damp hair. “I will be back, Tess.”
    She did not believe a word of it. Looking up at him, she studied his shadowed face. She was terrified. It could all too easily be the last time she ever saw him. Impulsively, she cupped his handsome face in her hands and kissed him. It startled her a little when he swiftly wrapped his arm around her shoulders and returned her tentative kiss with a deep, fierce one.
    “Good luck,” she managed to whisper when the kiss ended.
    Revan stared at her. A moment ago his mind had been filled with his plans for pulling them free of the danger they were in. Now it was filled with Tess and the heady warmth of her kiss. He did not want to ride out and play hide-and-seek with Thurkettle’s men. He wanted to stay with Tess. He wanted to see what little his shirt covered of her lithe body. He wanted to kiss and touch every silken inch of her. That kiss had been sweet—dangerously sweet. Inwardly cursing, he grabbed up his lifeless riding companion and strode toward his horse, forcing his thoughts back to survival.
    Tess said nothing as he prepared himself. She just sat where he had left her.
    “Revan,” she finally said as he stood at the mouth of the cave. “Mayhaps it willna mean much, but if this does fail, if ye dinna return, I will make very sure they all pay dearly.”
    He stared at her for a moment. “It means a lot,” he murmured, then left.
    Picking up her dirk from the cave floor, Tess set it in her lap. For a while there was silence, then came shouts and the sound of galloping horses. She closed her eyes and prayed. It was going to be a very long night.

CHAPTER 5
    “Tess?”
    “Revan, ye fool,” she hissed, carefully easing her grip on her dagger, “I almost threw this at you.”
    Edging into the cave and tugging his tired mount in behind him, Revan murmured, “Well, at least ye were alert.”
    She watched his shadowy form as he moved to light the fire. A hundred different emotions assaulted her as the firelight revealed his weary face. She could not make herself move from where she still crouched at the back of the cave, but simply stared at him as he unsaddled his horse.
    “I finally lost the fools through pure good fortune and the help of darkness.”
    “Good,” she managed to croak out. She wondered how one person could look so good to her.
    “Alert,” he had called her. She had spent so long tensed and afraid, she ached. Sometime during the long night hours she had moved to the rear of the cave, although she could not explain why. Now, though, she was not sure she could move. She feared she would do something mad—or humiliating—when and if she did.
    What she ached to do was touch him, listen to his strong heartbeat, feel his warmth. That would still the fear that he had not really returned, that this was only a dream born of a terror-fevered mind. She was afraid, however, that she might take it too far. So, cowardly, she sat still.
    “Now that I see this in the light,” Revan said, laughing as he sat before the fire and began to dismantle the large doll, “I dinna ken how it fooled them. Your clothes are dry now.”
    “That is nice.”
    “Do we have enough water for me to wash myself ?”
    “Aye.”
    Revan briefly frowned at her as he filled a large wooden bowl with water. She was behaving strangely, sitting in the dark and hardly speaking. Inwardly he shrugged as he yanked off his boots, then stripped to his hose. It must have been hard for her to wait, alone and in the dark,