She knew the Welshman had returned by the way Fuss pricked up his ears in the same moment that the falcon’s eye focused beyond her. Nan stood and moved away from the cage, never turning to face him. There was no way to know what was in her face, but she knew that she would not be able to hide her thoughts. Now the sun was going down and she had done naught but sit still, and that was telling enough.

She busied herself and watched surreptitiously as he set the perch in the soft ground, put on the gauntlet, and took up the bird. It did not escape her that he kept a careful distance from her while she built a small fire to warm the water. She washed the dirt of the day from her hands and feet, and he did not come near the water so that he might do the same. When she spread her square of waxed linen on the ground to make her bed, he moved far in the opposite direction – farther than he’d ever placed himself from her – and made his own bed there.

They seemed to prowl about each other like wary animals, and it gave her a deep and abiding satisfaction that he was just as cautious of her as she was of him. He was like so many of the men she had known from fine households, the way he had kissed her without an instant of hesitation, so sure of himself. So sure of her. After days of uncertainty, at last he had found his confidence again. And he found it by putting his hands on her, of course. A man who looked so appalled at Aunt Mary’s house – while she was amazed to find Mary had a house at all – such a man took what he thought was his due, so long as nothing stopped him.

It was a good thing he was wary now. Let that be what he remembered of her, if he would remember anything at all.

There was still daylight enough but she smothered the embers of the fire without thinking and snapped her fingers for Fuss. When he did not come, she looked to see him seated by the Welshman. In the dog’s mouth was the scrap of bread that must have dropped from the Welshman’s hands when he had reached for her.

The sight of it reminded her they had not eaten this evening, and the realization shocked her as much as anything that had happened today. In her life, she had never once forgotten to eat so long as there was food to be had. Especially on this journey, when she ignored her usual appetite in favor of feeding him more.