Leave me alone

I pressed myself against the bark of the tree behind me, and found it reassuringly solid. I crossed my arms protectively in front of me.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" I demanded again.

The question this time came out in a croak that sounded frightened even to my ears.

As though not hearing me, he ignored the question, taking his time in the fastening of the frogs down the front of his coat.

Only when he finished did he turn his attention to me once more. He bowed sardonically, hand over his heart.

"I am, madam, Howatt Affleck, Esquire, Captain of His Majesty's Eighth Dragoons. At your service, madam."

I broke and ran. My breath rasped in my chest as I tore through the screen of oak and alder, ignoring brambles, nettles, stones, fallen logs, everything in my path. I heard a shout behind me, but was much too panicked to determine its direction.

I fled blindly, branches scratching my face and arms, ankles turning as I stepped in holes and stumbled on rocks. I had no room in my mind for any form of rational thought; I wanted only to get away from him.

A heavy weight struck me hard in the lower back and I pitched forward at full length, landing with a thud that knocked the wind out of me. Rough hands flipped me onto my back, and Captain Howatt Affleck rose to his knees above me.

He was breathing heavily and had lost his sword in the chase. He looked disheveled, dirty, and thoroughly annoyed.

"What the devil do you mean by running away like that?" he demanded.

A thick lock of dark-brown hair had come loose and curved across his brow, making him look even more disconcertingly like Douglas.

He leaned down and grasped me by the arms. Still gasping for breath, I struggled to get free, but succeeded only in dragging him down on top of me.

He lost his balance and collapsed at full length on me, flattening me once more. Surprisingly enough, this seemed to make his annoyance vanish.

"Oh, like that, is it?" he said, with a chuckle.

"Well, I'd be most willing to oblige you, Chuckie, but it happens you've chosen a rather inopportune moment."

His weight pressed my hips to the ground, and a small rock was digging painfully into the small of my back.

I squirmed to dislodge it. He ground his hips hard against mine, and his hands pinned my shoulders to the earth. My mouth fell open in outrage.

"What do you…" I began, but he ducked his head and kissed me, cutting short my expostulations.

His tongue thrust into my mouth and explored me with a bold familiarity, roving and plunging, retreating and lunging again. Then, just as suddenly as he had begun, he pulled back.

He patted my cheek.

"Quite nice, Chuck. Perhaps later, when I've the leisure to attend to you properly."

I had by this time recovered my breath, and I used it. I screamed directly into his earhole, and he jerked as though I had run a hot wire into it.

I took advantage of the movement to get my knee up, and jabbed it into his exposed side, sending him sprawling into the leaf mold.

I scrambled awkwardly to my feet. He rolled expertly, and came up alongside me. I glanced wildly around, looking for a way out, but we were flush up against the foot of one of those towering granite cliffs that jut so abruptly from the soil of the Scottish Uplands.

He had caught me at a point where the rock face broke inward, forming a shallow stony box.

He blocked the entrance to the declivity, arms spread and braced between the rock walls, an expression of mingled anger and curiosity on his handsome dark face.

"Who were you with?" he demanded.

"Douglas, whoever he is? I've no man by that name among my company. Or is it some man who lives nearby?" He smiled derisively.

"You haven't the smell of dung on your skin, so you haven't been with a cottar. For that matter, you look a bit more expensive than the local farmers could afford."

I clenched my fists and set my chin. Whatever this joker had in mind, I was having none of it.

"I haven't the faintest idea what you are talking about, and I'll thank you to let me pass at once!" I said, adopting my very best ward-sister's tone.

This generally had a good effect on recalcitrant orderlies and young interns, but appeared merely to amuse Captain Affleck.

I was resolutely repressing the feelings of fear and disorientation that were flapping under my ribs like a panicked flock of hens.

He shook his head slowly, examining me once more in detail.

"Not just at present, Chuckie. I'm asking myself," he said, internationally.

"Just why a whore abroad in her shift would be wearing her shoes? And quite fine ones, at that,"' he added, glancing at my plain brown loafers.

"A what!" I exclaimed.

He ignored me completely. His gaze had returned to my face, and he suddenly stepped forward and gripped my chin in his hand. I grabbed his wrist and yanked.

"Let go of me!"

He had fingers like steel. Disregarding my efforts to free myself, he turned my face from one side to the other, so the fading afternoon light shone on it.

"The skin of a lady, I'll swear," he murmured to himself.

He leaned forward and sniffed. "And a French scent in your hair." He let go then, and I rubbed my jaw indignantly, as though to erase the touch I still felt on my skin.

"The rest might be managed with money from your patron," he mused.

"But you've the speech of a lady too."

"Thanks so much!" I snapped.

"Get out of my way. My husband is expecting me; if I'm not back in ten minutes, he'll come looking for me."

"Oh, your husband?" The derisively admiring expression retreated somewhat, but did not disappear completely.