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was never wise.
    “Come, lass.” He held out his hand.
    She was tempted to take it, because she could no longer feel her toes, but he needed to know she wasn’t his spaniel to come and go at his bidding.
    “Have it your way, then.” He leaned down, caught her around the waist, and swung her up into his lap, her bum to the sky. He gave her bottom a swat, and embarrassed warmth coursed through her. She gave a yelp, more from surprise than pain. “Nothing like a good tanning to warm a body.”
    He didn’t strike her again, but he kept his hand on her buttocks.
    “Let me up,” she demanded.
    “Will ye stop ignoring me when I tell ye what ye must do?”
    “Aye,” she spat out.
    He grabbed her waist and lifted her to ride astride before him. Then he kneed the stallion into a trot.
    Her teeth chattered in the cold.
    Rob spread the MacLaren weave over her and snugged her tight against his chest. “Better?”
    “Better than freezing to death, I suppose.” Elspeth didn’t know how much warmer the extra wool made her, but she decided the heat from his body was worth a bit of her dignity. His thighs around hers set her blood flowing at a brisk pace.
    Rob kicked the stallion into a canter, and they flew across the heath.
    Elspeth remembered that her mother had insisted on tucking a handkerchief into the sleeve of her chemise.
    “A bride always needs a handkerchief,” Morag Stewart had said, her eyes tearing up. Elspeth hadn’t been in danger of weeping at her wedding, but she felt the pressure behind her eyes now when she thought of her mother and how worried she must be.
    “What woods are those up ahead?” She turned her head to ask and, as she’d hoped, it drew his attention. While he was telling her, she managed to pull out the kerchief and let it fly away from them without his notice.
    When they reached the line of trees, he slowed to a trot.
    “Not that I care if ye’re lost,” Elspeth said, “but I thought MacLaren lands were south of here.”
    “Aye, they are. Clever lass. Most wenches canna tell up from down.”
    “Then why are we going the opposite direction?”
    “We canna go by a route your bridegroom will expect, can we? When they search for ye at daybreak, they’ll all head south. So, o’ course, we’ll go north.”
    “Then we’ll never reach Caisteal Dubh .”
    Surely not everyone in that stronghold would agree with their laird’s decision to take her prisoner. She’d find someone to help her there if Lachlan and her father didn’t catch up to them first.
    Rob made a tsking noise. “Oh, ye of little faith. I’ve arranged for a way to swing south in safety.”
    Elspeth’s chest constricted. He’d planned this abduction down to the last detail. Who knew a madman could be so devilishly clever?
    They slowed to a walk and entered the forest, following game trails.
    “Why are ye doing this?” she asked. “What did Lachlan Drummond ever do to ye?”
    His arm around her waist tightened, and she felt his whole body clench, but he didn’t answer. He was silent so long, she wondered if he hadn’t heard her.
    “There must be a reason,” she said. “Because no one would abduct a man’s bride without one.” Not even a madman , she added silently.
    “Sure of that, are ye?” The bitterness in his tone cut like a blade.
    “Aye. I think I have a right to know why ye’ve taken me.”
    “Where have ye been the last two years?” he demanded. “In a hole in the ground?”
    “Hmph. If ye must know, I’ve been in Edinburgh with the queen,” she said, straightening her spine. “I’m one of her ladies-in-waiting. That’s something ye might have considered before ye kidnapped me. Ye’ve not only angered my betrothed, ye’ll have every Stewart hand against ye, as well. My father has a long reach, and the queen will take what ye’ve done very ill.”
    “If news of Drummond’s deeds didna reach the court, this willna either,” he said flatly. “And if your father didna know the measure