“I’m fine,” she reassured him, but then the reality of what had just happened hit her. She relived that awful moment when Maitland had fallen and the gun had fired. “He could have shot you,” she whispered, and fell against his chest.

He smoothed his fingers through her tangled hair. “But he didn’t, love. You saved me. We saved each other. I’m fine now, please don’t cry.”

She lifted her head from his chest and stared up into his beautiful face. “I didn’t know he’d be here. I thought I was safe when I came down to look at the trunks. I thought it would keep you from having to relive more unhappy memories.”

He nodded. “I know. And why would you know? How would you possibly think that Maitland would return to search this place again? He must have been truly desperate.”

She sucked a breath. “He was. Not mad, but there is more to this story than we know. He’s not what I expected. And Jasper, I don’t think he knows where my sister is. When I asked about Anne, he said something about the last time he saw her, like it had been a while.”

“Then she might have escaped him,” Jasper said. “That would partly explain his reaction. His plan was falling apart.”

She clutched her fingers against his chest. “She might try to come home.”

“I hope so,” he said, and put an arm around her to guide her out of the building. Reynolds was coming down the path, and Jasper lifted a hand. “Anything?” he called out.

Reynolds shook his head. “He had a horse waiting. He was gone through your gate before I could mount to make chase. Luckily the guard was coming in just as I began my exit. I turned them back to follow him, but he’s long gone, I think.”

“Go manage them then. We’ll be up in a moment,” Jasper called out. When he had disappeared over the hill, he turned her to face him in the path. “I want to talk to you about what happened a moment ago.”

She flinched. He was talking about his confession of love to her, said at the most heated of moments. It was possible he wished to take it back, even if he meant it. To rebuild those walls he constantly kept up to protect himself. But she couldn’t let him. Not ever again.

“Please don’t say you didn’t mean those words,” she said, lifting her gaze to him. “Because I love you, Jasper. I have loved you probably from the first moment I met you all those months ago. Even when I knew I shouldn’t, even when you were my sister’s fiancé, I loved you. And today I came painfully close to losing you. So I won’t ever hold my declarations back again and I hope you won’t either.”

He stared at her, blinking in what seemed like utter shock and disbelief. “You—you loved me all along?”

“Of course I did,” she said with a laugh.