He did not speak to her again until they reached the trees at the far end of the paddock.
Then, as they began to move through them onto the flat ground, the Earl gazed at Kyla and said,
“You look very lovely. Are you still afraid?”
“I would be – if I was not – with you,” Kyla replied without thinking.
Then, as she saw the expression in the Earl’s eyes, she blushed and looked ahead.
There was no one in sight.
The sunshine made the flat ground, with trees on either side of it, seem very attractive.
It was quite impossible to believe that anything terrible could happen there.
“Chins up!” the Earl called out. “Here we go and God be with us!”
He moved forward as he spoke and Kyla and Terry kept pace with him on their large horses.
A minute later the highwaymen suddenly appeared as if
