From On Marble Road...

Long straight deserted road behind and ahead. The dark icy woods around her. If not for the ample moonlight, Bethany would have felt like a fool for putting herself at risk like this.

But this was one way to show Jack Daw she was no coward.

She told herself it was also her chance to shore up her belief in the innate goodness of humanity--even when it came to a scoundrel--but she knew it went deeper than that. She knew herself well enough to realize, when someone was as ever-present in her thoughts as this no-account thief had been since she'd set eyes on him, there was some larger part of her soul at work.

Not to mention, she'd found his kiss unforgettable.

She had to know. Was he a worthless lout or a good man gone bad because of injustice? Was he a lost soul in need of saving? Was he like the boys at home she couldn't save?

Maybe that was all there was to it. She wanted to save someone, lift them up and set them on high ground, for the sake of all the ones she hadn't been able to help back home.

Jack Daw might prove her wrong in the end, and all her precepts too, but she'd be damned if she was going to let it all go without a fight. If he turned out to be a blackheart, well she had her pistol, if she needed it. She hoped she wouldn't. It would be a shame to have to shoot him.

The icy wind blew right up her back, and she drew her hood around her more closely. Looking behind her, she saw nothing but the silver-washed road she'd traversed. She turned back around to look ahead again and her breath caught in her throat. She drew rein with a soft word for her mare, trying to control her emotions.

A rider ambled onto the road about thirty feet ahead of her, a macabre creature in his black hood and cape.

Jack Daw barred her way with his pawing horse and watched her, waiting for her to approach him. He seemed alone, but she knew better. Bethany reached into her pocket and wrapped her hand around her pistol for comfort and nudged her horse forward. It wasn't her derringer; that she wanted to keep safe and secret, and Mr. Trent's pistol had more range.

She halted eight feet from him. "I had begun to think you're lazy. I'm halfway home. You nearly missed your chance."

"I can't have you thinking I'm easy," he returned in his muffled, raspy voice.

The laughter that echoed through the woods told Bethany she was right--he'd brought his full force with him. She eyed her surroundings in all directions, trying to size up an escape route. None presented itself. That would make her pistol an unfortunate necessity.

"No way out, Miss Bryan," he murmured.

She drew her gun and took aim. "Unless I shoot you."

"My lads will be on you like hounds on a vixen."

"I'll take my chances."

She never saw his hand move. One minute she was cocking her pistol and the next, her hand caught fire and she watched her gun fly into the grass somewhere to her right. So much for Mr. Trent's pistol.

Bethany rubbed her hand, cursing Jack Daw under her breath, while he drew the lash of his whip into a coil again.

"As I said," he taunted, "no way out."

She wet her chapped lips with her tongue. "Except for my wits and your sense of sport. How's that for odds? They're all in my favor, of course."

A short laugh escaped him, but he covered it by clearing his throat. "I'm listening."

"How fast is that creature you call a horse?" she demanded.

"Fast enough to catch you before you reach the gates of Bryan House."

She couldn't help smiling. The thrill of it...

"You poor idiot," she laughed, resettling herself on her shiny new sidesaddle so she sat astride. "I've outridden more men than you've commanded in all your nights of tomfoolery."

"Rules of the race, my girl: if you reach your gates before I reach you, I'll give you up for the night. If I cut you off at the gates, you're mine."

"Fair enough."

He drew his horse back and waved her forward.

Bethany pranced past him with a wicked grin, clicked her tongue at Ebony and gave the strutting mare full rein. Ebony leaped into a gallop and thundered down Marble Road like a wild thing.

With the wind in her face and the moon overhead, Jack Daw on her heels and Ebony's pounding hooves beneath her, Bethany swore she'd remember this night well into her dotage.

She looked to her left and caught sight of the thief dashing through the forest alongside her, weaving his horse through the trees as if he were one with his mount, but when she broke into the clearing, he vanished. The lights of Bryan House shone from the hill in the distance. Home free. She let out a whoop of victory and left the road for the open pasture. The scent of wet grass rose up around her.

The sound of another rider coming fast behind her made her glance over her shoulder. Jack Daw broke out of the woods. He was beside her in seconds, almost close enough to touch her. He began to edge past her.

Bethany leaned into Ebony's mane and urged her onward, steering a course for the brook that cut across the pasture. That would slow him up. She patted Ebony's lathering shoulder, calling her name as they approached the silvery-black ditch.

The mare gathered herself and leaped, and for two timeless seconds, Bethany and Jack Daw hung suspended, side by side.

When they came back to earth, the thief was as close as before, and the gates in sight. Bethany sped toward the gates with Jack Daw riding her flank. She swept up with the lane, calling on everything Ebony could give her...