Page 95 of When the Rogue Returns
Perhaps sheshouldagree to his terms. Wouldn’t it be better to take the chance that he would keep his word, rather than risk the possibility of Amalie disappearing forever and Victor and his men never being able to find her?
Separately, we remember our weaknesses and our self-doubts and we falter... Gerhart said those things to make you doubt yourself... We have to hold firm to what we know, what we believe: that together we can save our daughter.
Believe in yourself.
She did. And her every instinct cried that Gerhart was bluffing—that if she gave up the diamonds now, she would never see her daughter again.
Turning her horse, she rode back in the opposite direction. Her heart was hammering in her chest; her blood ran like sludge through her veins.Oh God oh God oh God,she prayed, please don’t let this be the end. Please let me be right about Gerhart.
After what seemed like an eternity, she heard hoofbeats behind her and Gerhart rode up alongside her. She’d won this round!
Gerhart glowered at her. “Follow me,” he ordered. “I’ll bring you to her. But if you don’t have those diamonds on you, I’ll make you both regret it.”
She had no doubt of that.
Whirling the horse back around, he set off at a gallop. She followed, fear gripping her chest. The men had their horses with them in the woods, but they couldn’t follow through the dense growth on horseback, and they dared not follow on the road unless they kept far enough behind for Gerhart not to see them. Which meant they’d have to stay far enough behind not to seeher.
So how would they find her, especially if he left the road?
She squared her shoulders. She would simply have to lead them to her.
♦♦♦
VICTOR WAS FITto be tied. Isa had ridden past his spot what seemed like hours ago, though it had probably been a few minutes. She’d been alone. And just seeing her perched on the horse, back straight and face bloodless, roused his every protective instinct.
Where the devil was that bastard Gerhart? Would he show? Or had he figured out that they were up to something?
The longer he stood there, the more terror gripped him. For the first time, he understood what Max’s father must have felt when his son had disappeared. How fitting that Victor should suffer the same. Though it hardly seemed fair that he—or his innocent daughter—should be punished for his father’s sins.
He wouldn’t let that happen, damn it! He would hunt Gerhart to the ends of the earth first.
Several more minutes ticked past. Then he heard a vaguely birdlike cry. He thanked God for his training as a soldier; otherwise, he wouldn’t have recognized Lochlaw’s birdcall as the same signal they’d agreed upon. He could only pray that Gerhart hadn’t noticed it.
Moving as swiftly through the woods as he could with his horse, he came upon Lochlaw pacing in his designated spot. “Thank God!” the young man cried when Victor reached him. “Your wife rode past with some fellow just a short while ago. He was in front of her, and she was following him.” He cast Victor an anxious look. “Neither of them had Amalie.”
Victor’s heart stopped. “Damn that bastard! I knew we couldn’t trust him.” Creeping up to the road, he gazed down it, but there was no sign of anyone.
Within moments, Tristan and Dom, who’d also heard the cry, were at his side. Lochlaw began telling them what he’d seen as Victor brought his horse onto the road.
When Victor mounted, Dom grabbed his reins. “You don’t want to be seen by him.”
“I know,” Victor said. “But I can’t let him get too far ahead of us either, or we’ll never find him. He has my wife and child, damn it!”
“You don’t know that for certain,” Tristan said quietly as he brought his own horse up onto the road. “Lochlaw saw no sign of a girl. Perhaps this reallywasall about the diamonds. Perhaps Amalie is still in school, and your wife is just joining her family with a fortune in stolen jewels.”
Victor cast him a hard stare. “I thought you believed her.”
Tristan’s expression was pitying. “Those diamonds are worth at least seventeen thousand pounds. You said that yourself.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Victor said. “She’s not stealing them. That much I know.” He snatched his reins from Dom. “So you two can help me, or you can sit here. But I’m going after my family.”
Lochlaw thrust out his chin and mounted his own horse. “So am I.”
“Either way,” Dom pointed out to Tristan, “we have to retrieve the jewels, old man.”
Leaving them to climb onto their mounts, Victor spurred his horse forward, but he’d only gone a few feet when he spotted something white fluttering in the growth beside the road. “Hold up,” he said. Halting his horse, he climbed down to find Isa’s fichu caught on a thistle.
Had it flown off in her mad dash after Gerhart? No, that couldn’t be. He’d seen her pin it on securely this morning. So what the devil—
