The Tiger Prince (51 page)

“Then why send him there?”

“I needed time to get to you and tell you what he planned.” Dilam frowned worriedly. “I do not think Danor will hurt him, but I do not—you will go after him, yes?”

“Yes. How much time do I have?”

“Li Sung will probably start after the elephant tonight or early tomorrow morning. He should have very little head start on you if you come at once.”

“And just how does he think he’s going to find this elephant,” Ruel asked.

Dilam looked at him in surprise. “It is not difficult to track an elephant. They hardly creep unnoticed through the jungle.”

That was true enough, Jane thought as she remembered the broken branches and uprooted trees that had marked Danor’s path. “Go saddle my horse, Dilam. I’ll meet you at the stable in fifteen minutes.” She shut the door and moved across the room to the armoire. “Don’t worry, this won’t hold us up,” she told Ruel. “Dilam will supervise the workers while Li Sung and I get rid of the elephant.”

“If you don’t have a relapse trying to track down Li Sung in that jungle,” Ruel said grimly.

“I’m going after him.”

“I’m not arguing with you. I didn’t think you’d do anything else.” Ruel strode toward the door. “Heaven forbid you take care of your own health when Li Sung wants to kill an elephant.”

“May I point out that elephant is destroying your track?”

“He could also destroy—” Ruel stopped in mid-sentence as he opened the door. “I’ll meet you at the stable. I have some affairs to tidy up here before I can leave.”

“You’re going back to the mountain?”

“Hell no, I’m going elephant hunting.” The door slammed behind him.

“I’ll make camp.” Ruel lifted her off her horse and turned away. “Sit down somewhere before you fall down.”

“I can help.”

“Of course you can. You’re white as a sheet and you’ve been reeling in the saddle for the last two miles,” Ruel said sarcastically. “But you’re fit as a fiddle.”

She was too tired to argue with him. He had been moody and bad-tempered since they had left the palace the day before, and her nerves were as raw as his appeared to be. She collapsed on a fallen log beside the clearing and watched as he unsaddled the horses and began to gather wood for a fire.

Neither of them spoke until after they had eaten and Ruel was scraping the remains of the food on the plates into the fire. “You didn’t eat much,” he said curtly. “How do you expect to gain any strength if you starve yourself?”

“I had enough.” She changed the subject. “I thought we’d have caught up with Li Sung by now.”

“I thought so too. We traveled at a pretty good clip, so he has to be close. We’re bound to catch up with him in the morning.” He spread out their bedrolls on either side of the fire. “If he’s not gone completely berserk and tries blundering through the jungle in the dark.”

“Li Sung’s not gone berserk.”

“We’re all mad. Why else are we in the middle of the jungle chasing a damn elephant?”

“You didn’t have to come with me.”

“Didn’t I?”

“I would have been fine.”

“I’m not doing it for you,” he said jerkily. “I need that line finished before Abdar decides to pay us a visit.”

“It will be finished.”

“And the first shipment to the dock will probably be your corpse.”

She had suddenly had enough. “Why should you care?” she flared at him. “Then you’ll be free of me.”

“Dammit, I’ll
never
be free of you.” He whirled and jerked her to her feet, his eyes glittering wildly in his set face. “God help me, I don’t want to be free of you. I want you alive. I want you … Jesus, I want you with me for the rest of my life.”

She stared at him, stunned.

“Stop looking at me like that. Do you think I like it, that I haven’t been fighting it? But it’s here, dammit, and I can’t do anything about it.”

She laughed shakily. “What a tender declaration. Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s only a temporary affliction and will soon go away.”

“It’s not gone away in three years. I think I knew in Kasanpore there was no escape, and now we’ve come full circle.” His hands kneaded her shoulders with an odd yearning movement. “And sometimes there is … tenderness.”

“Pity, you mean.” She stepped back from him. “Caretaking.”

“Caretaking? Those are your words. You scared the hell out of me. I thought I was going to lose you.” His grip tightened. “I’m not going to lose you, Jane. Not ever.”

She felt the panic rising. Everything had seemed so clear. She had been so sure of her ability to fight him and yet now she was experiencing a strange weakness and uncertainty. She must not let him sway her. “Lose me? You’ve never had me. You’re never going to have me. I’m not such a fool that I’d let you come close to me after all that’s gone between us.”

“We’re already close. We’re so close we’re almost a part of each other. You feel it and so do I. We’re so close that we never really left each other even though you were oceans away.”

The intensity of his emotion was reaching out to her, surrounding her, smothering her.

“No,” she whispered.

“Yes.” His finger reached out and gently touched the
plane of her cheek. “Oh yes, we have to have each other. We have to be together.”

“Ian.”

He went still. “I can work it out.”

“Forgive? Forget?” She smiled sadly. “Not you, Ruel.”

“I’ll work it out,” he repeated. “I have no choice.”

“But I do have a choice.” She turned away from him and moved toward her bedroll. “And I have no intention of letting myself be hurt by you again. Ever since we met you’ve manipulated me, pulled me to and fro to suit yourself, but it’s finished now. When this is over I’m going to be free to live my life as I wish and you’ll not be a part of it.” She forced herself to glance at him over her shoulder. “I can’t believe you’d think I’d want anything else.”

“Then I’ll have to change your mind, won’t I?” One corner of his lips lifted in a sardonic smile. “Oh, I know it’s not going to be easy after what I’ve done to you. I’ll do what I can to smooth the way for both of us, but you’ll have to work through it too.”

Dear God, she had seen how determined and irresistible Ruel could be when he was focusing his attention on a goal. Now he wanted to focus that will on her for a lifetime instead of a few days of revenge. The mere idea terrified her. She wanted peace to live her own life as she saw fit. She settled down in her blankets and turned her back to him, trying to shut out his words, trying to shut him out.

“We could share one bedroll, you know,” he said softly. “We’d probably both sleep better. We’re used to each other now.”

The truth of his words frightened her even more. They were used to each other’s bodies, used to all the textures and scents and flavors, used to the rhythms of passion. They knew each other in the most erotic and seductive of intimacies. Yet there had been other moments in the past few days when their togetherness had taken on a gentler, even comfortable quality. He was no longer a dark secret to her, and that knowledge in itself
was alluring. He was a battle she had fought and lost … and won.

“For God’s sake, I’d only hold you. I’m not fool enough to think you’re well enough to—” He broke off. “It would be a start.”

She couldn’t let it start. “No.” She could feel his gaze on her back. She had been so relieved when she had thought herself free of him. Let him not say anything more. Let him not touch her.

With relief she heard him move toward his own bedroll and settle into the blankets. The silence was unbroken for several moments. Then he said in a low voice, “Think about it, Jane. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll admit you don’t have any choice either.”

Her eyes were suddenly stinging with unshed tears. He had mentioned need and lust but not love. Not that she wanted him to love her, she told herself quickly. She knew that was as impossible for him as it was for her now. She was tired and not completely over her illness or she would not feel this sense of desolate loneliness and isolation. She would get over it. She mustn’t answer him or let him come any closer.

She hoped he was wrong about her not having a choice. Of course he was wrong. He had to be wrong.

hey did not overtake Li Sung until late afternoon of the next day.

“Li Sung!”

Li Sung stiffened at Ruel’s hail and then turned to confront them. The relief Jane felt immediately turned to concern. Li Sung’s usually golden skin was parchment-pale, his mouth set in lines of strain, and his expression distinctly forbidding.

“You should not be here,” he said.

“Neither should you,” she said. “Are you ill? You look terrible.”

“So do you.” Li Sung smiled faintly. “And you are
the one who has been ill. I have merely been enduring the usual agonies inflicted when riding on this equine beast for too long.”

Even a half-day’s ride was painful to Li Sung, and he had been driving himself unmercifully for three days. She hid the pity the thought brought and said lightly, “It serves you right for going after the elephant without me.”

He grimaced. “I did not trust you not to soften when I caught up with him. Your heart is too tender. I want to shoot him, not adopt him.”

“You shouldn’t have worried. He’s not a dog or a cat, and he destroyed my tracks,” Jane said. “Do you have any idea how far ahead he is?”

“Not far.”

“How do you know?” Ruel asked. “Have you heard him?”

“No.”

“Then how do you know?” Ruel persisted. “He could be angling back toward the crossing by another route.”

“He is not.” He gestured impatiently as Ruel opened his lips. “And I do not know why I am sure, but I am. I tell you, he is just ahead.”

“I’m not arguing. I have a firm belief in instinct,” Ruel said quietly. “If he’s just ahead, then you won’t mind stopping for the night. This clearing seems to be as good a place as any. We can fetch water from that pond we passed a quarter of a mile back.”

Li Sung frowned. “It is still early. If I keep on the trail, I might be able to overtake him.”

“And you might not.” Ruel got off his horse. “And even if we do catch up with him, we might be too tired to be any threat.”

Li Sung stiffened. “I am weary, not helpless.”

“I wasn’t talking about you.” Ruel reached up and plucked Jane from the saddle. “Jane’s been ill, remember?” He met her gaze warningly as she started to protest. “You may be able to drive yourself without
collapsing, but you might think of someone else besides yourself.”

“She should not have come.”

“We’re here,” Ruel said flatly. “Deal with it.”

Li Sung hesitated before nodding reluctantly. “Very well.” He got off his horse and then had to grab the pommel of the saddle to steady himself as his stiffened legs threatened to give way.

Jane hastily averted her eyes from this betraying sign of weakness. “I’ll gather the wood.”

“I’ll do it.” Li Sung released the saddle. “Danor has left more than enough torn up trees in his wake to accommodate our needs.” He limped toward the path left by the elephant.

“It was clever of you not to let Li Sung know it was him you were concerned about,” she said in a low voice.

“Hell, I can’t claim any great degree of cleverness. I only told the truth. I am worried about you.” He turned away before she could speak. “I’ll set up camp. You go after Li Sung and see if you can persuade him to stay here while I go after the elephant.”

“Alone?” she asked, startled. “Don’t tell me you were a hunter too at one time?”

He shook his head. “The only animals I ever hunted were the rats in the London sewers.”

She vaguely remembered him telling her he had been a rat catcher that night at Zabrie’s. “A rat is hardly in the same class as an elephant.”

“The principle is the same. At least, I’m more qualified than you or Li Sung.” He unfastened the girth of his saddle. “Go to him.”

She stood there, watching him. The mere thought of him stalking that mad elephant alone sent panic racing through her.

“Go on,” he repeated.

She hurriedly turned and followed Li Sung.

“This was very foolish of you,” she said quietly as she fell into step with him. “I told you we’d find another solution.”