I had almost fallen asleep when I heard steps in the foyer below me; Kevin and Robbie were saying goodnight. I leapt up and fled silently into my room, leaving the door ajar; I saw Kevin, a tall, dark shadow, pass my door and enter his own room.
As soon as his door closed, I flew silently down the stairs. Robbie was going through the front door; I heard him speak to his servant Pete; then the door closed.
When I heard his horse's feet on the driveway I left the house behind him, still silent, slipping through the shadows across the corner of the field, and hid myself along the edge of the drive way, where it curved onto the road. My heart pounded with elation and power.
I would stop him as he left Gillean, and this time I would not fail.
He came trotting down the drive, and I stepped to the edge of the lane, startling him.
He let out an oath, and leapt from the horse, leading it to where I waited for him.
It had been a week since I had made my first attempt. In the interim, I had not seen him. I looked up at him, unable to suppress my joy, and smiled.
He did not smile back. "Jessie, this behavior is unaccountable." His voice was cold.
I reached up to touch his cheek; he caught my wrist and thrust my hand away. "Not so, my love," I said. "There is nothing else that I can do, loving you as I do." I took his hand.
"Please, come with me. Sit with me. Let us have a visit. Surely you will not deny me a moment's conversation! I need news of Brianag, and of Cathy."
I felt his body relax slightly, and he followed me away from the drive, into the trees at the edge. I knelt on the cool ground, and drew him down beside me.
"What do you hear of Cathy and John?" I asked him.
I could barely see him in the starlight. "They are ecstatically happy, and madly in love still," he said, and laughed softly. "At last! Lawd, it was awful to watch them struggle through that first year together!"
"Yes," I whispered. "And does Cathy carry the child well?"
"By all accounts she is thriving," he answered.
"How blessed they are!" I said.
"Yes."
I twined my fingers through his. "Robbie, my dearest, do you not wish to be held by a lover too?"