Read Naughty in Nottinghamshire 02 - The Rogue Returns for Free Online Page A

brave,” he murmured into her hair.
    “I stomped on his foot and smashed my fist into his…into his… ” She pulled out of his arms and folded over at the waist as if she might wretch.
    “Shh… it’s over now, buttercup.” He brushed her hair back from her face and brought her back to standing. “You did fine, sweetheart.”
    “I’ve never…I thought you…” She shuddered. “I abhor violence.”
    Roane regretted that she had been forced to touch that man. This was an ugly world in which she did not belong. “We have to ride away from here, buttercup.” He held her hand and led her toward Zeus. Quickly, he strapped his saddlebags in place. “I wager the men brought horses with them to make their escape.” Guiding Helen with one hand and Zeus with the other, he picked his way through the trees until he found what he was looking for. The thieves’ horses were handsome beasts, and not what Roane had expected from coarse laborers. He checked them over and chose the smaller of the two. “This will be your mount.”
    Helen was frozen in place. She looked even paler, if that were possible. “We cannot steal a horse.”
    “One is not stealing if protecting oneself from attempted murderers and thieves.”
    “What logic is that?”
    “My logic.” He stood next to the mount and linked his fingers together. “Step up.”
    She shook her head.
    “Hurry, Helen.”
    “I cannot.” Her voice was barely audible.
    He had no time to argue. He picked her up by the waist and nearly threw her atop Zeus. Then he mounted behind her.
    He led both thieves’ horses out of the clearing. “I don’t want to make it easy for them to follow us.”
    “So you think they will?”
    “They’ll try.” He let go of the larger mount and yelled, sending the horse fleeing into the darkness. The smaller horse strained to follow, but Roane held tight to her reins. Helen would need a mount in the morning. “If we see them again, let me do the talking, all right?”
    With a glance up at the dark sky, he headed north.
    “I knew what I was doing. It’s not like I was being foolish without a purpose.” Her voice still quivered. “Wait, where are we going? Cromford is the other direction.”
    “It’s too late for town, buttercup. We are headed into the mountains.”
    ***
    T HE RAIN HELD OFF until the deep dark of night, when it let loose in torrents and buckets. Raindrops pattered on the thick canopy of leaves overhead, and the silent forest became a symphony of rhythm and motion punctuated by gusts of wind. Roane wrapped his cloak around her, keeping her dry, but Helen barely noticed.
    That man had pointed a gun at her face.
    She wiped away the splatter of a raindrop and burrowed against Roane’s chest. It did no good to recall the scene by the meadow, but she could not wipe the memory from her person as easily as she did the rain.
    That man had pointed a gun at her face, had placed his disgusting hands on her, and held a knife to her throat. She’d faced danger before, or so she’d thought. Ugly men, mostly money lenders, who needed to be scolded away from the elegant front door of the Gladstone’s townhouse. Rude, powerful dowagers who disparaged her family and needed to be charmed into place. Handsy suitors who thought, in her dire circumstances, she’d be as fast and loose as her family’s reputation.
    But this was something else entirely. She was alone in the woods with only a stranger to help her.
    Her plan to find the gold had gone quite awry.
    Her teeth chattered, and not from cold. Roane’s arms tightened around her, and she pressed her eyes closed, leaning deeper into him. His chest was warm and solid and surprisingly comforting.
    “I am being a fool.” Her words came in tight little puffs against his damp linen shirt.
    “It’s not foolish to be afraid,” he said. Though she could not imagine him being afraid of anything. He was like a warrior from another time, fierce and confident on his great big beast of a