The Rebel Captain's Royalist Bride by Anne Herries Read Free Book Online Page B

must pick more herbs or your lady aunt will wonder what you did here all day. I have added some fungi I saw, but I know not what it is.’
    ‘Thank you.’ She turned to John. ‘You heard Jonas—be prepared to defend yourself, but I shall try to draw them away if I can.’
    ‘Take care yourself, Sister.’
    Babette nodded. She hurried away from the hut, which was sheltered by thick bushes and thorns and not easy to find unless you knew where it was situated. She moved quickly until they had put some distance behind them, then began to fill her basket with herbs, berries and the leaves she wanted to make her fever mixture. Seeing the mushroom that Jonas had added she recognised it as poisonous and was about to remove it and throw it away when a party of horsemen entered the small clearing. She recognised them at once and her heart jumped with fright. Had Jonas not heard them in time they might have happened upon him and been suspicious of why he loitered in the woods.
    ‘Mistress Harvey.’ Captain Colby looked down at her, his forehead creased. ‘What do you here?’
    ‘I have been foraging,’ Babette told him, lifting her chin. His eyes were suspicious as they centred on her, sending a thrill of fear through her—though her fear was for her brother and Drew rather than herself. ‘I was not aware that I had to ask for your permission to look for herbs in these woods.’
    Captain Colby dismounted, a flash of annoyance in his face. He looked at her in such a way that she felt he suspected her of an illicit meeting of some sort. Babette raised her head proudly, challenging him with her eyes.
    ‘What have you in your basket?’ he asked. He blocked her path as she tried to step away. His eyes bored into her, making her heart jump. She felt his anger as cold as ice as he moved closer. She held the basket forward for him to see, and his mouth thinned.
    ‘What is this?’ he asked, pointing at the poisonous fungi with his finger. Now the suspicion was in his face. ‘Do not say it was picked in error, for you would not be foraging at all if you were not aware of such dangers.’ His gaze narrowed as she hesitated, seeming to become colder than ever. ‘Were you hoping to feed it to me at supper somehow? You know that one small taste makes the stomach wrench with pain and enough of this is certain death to the eater.’
    Babette looked at it as she sought for an answer, but Jonas came to her rescue. ‘I picked it, thinking it good to eat. My mistress did not see me place it in the basket.’
    ‘I was about to throw it away,’ Babette said. ‘Jonas picked the wrong fungi. I was busy picking herbs and did not realise.’
    Captain Colby took the offending fungi in his gloved hand and threw it away, but the look he gave Babette told her that he doubted both her word and that of her servant. He truly suspected her of having picked it with the intent of doing him some harm. Her stomach clenched, for some men might have had her arrested and flogged—or imprisoned—on such a suspicion. She returned his cold look, tossing back her long hair, which glinted and took fire in a ray of sun reaching through the canopy.
    ‘Take care when picking your mushrooms in future, mistress,’ he said. ‘A mistake like that can cost the life of a dear one—and if it was intended for an enemy it would be a bad mistake. My friends would have avenged me, and your aunt and her family might have been blamed.’
    ‘It was meant for no one. Had you not come crashing through the trees it would already have been discarded. No harm was intended to anyone. Jonas made a simple mistake.’
    ‘Have you finished your foraging?’ he asked. ‘We shall escort you home, mistress, for there are reports of dangerous men in this wood—and I should not wish you to fall foul of them, even if you do consider me your enemy.’
    ‘We are of opposing beliefs, sir,’ Babette replied with dignity. If he escorted her home, his men would not stumble on the hut