Harvest of Gold Read Online Free PDF Page A

hand in her wet hair and turned her face toward his so that he could see her more clearly.
    “You aren’t too tired?”
    She shook her head and, standing on tiptoe, kissed him on the mouth, her lips shy. “I love you,” she said. It was the first time she had said the words without his prompting. The fact that he never made a similar declaration made her want to keep her own feelings hidden inside. But Darius coaxed and cajoled them out of her. Tonight, she offered up the words as a free gift. Her pride could not compare with his joy.
    He drew a sharp breath at her words. “Say it again.”
    “I love you.”
    With an inarticulate sound, he dragged her tighter against him. For the span of a moment he studied her, his dark lashes lowered, his expression unreadable. Then he kissed her with an explosive tenderness that dissolved the last of her reserve.

 
    Darius snapped into full consciousness, aware that an unfamiliar noise had dragged him out of sleep. Years of military training had honed his instincts for danger so that he was already taking inventory of the surroundings before his eyes adjusted to the starlight. With relief he noted that Sarah slept undisturbed next to him, her body squeezed tight against his side in an unconscious effort to ward off the night chill.
    He shifted his head to look for Arta, who had been assigned guard duty. In the firelight, he could see the man sprawled on the ground, his head slumped forward at an awkward angle. Darius’s heart pumped with an unpleasant rush as he noticed the dark liquid clinging to the side of Arta’s slack face.
    Besides Arta, he had three men riding with him. One was gagged and tied. He caught the attention of the second man, Meres, who remained alert and unbound, faking sleep. Meres pointed behind him with a subtle rising of his brow.
    Following his signal, Darius noted that there were four intruders busy with gagging and tying the remaining member of his company. Five , he amended, taking in the massive shoulders of a leather-bound man skulking toward him, holding a wide short sword. Darius grasped his knife, the only weapon he had kept strapped against his thigh when he had fallen into his pallet last night after an exhausting journey through treacherous slopes.
    The wide-shouldered man stood over him now. Filled with the peculiar calm that often came to him in the heat of battle, Darius realized that the man held his sword at a curious angle, like a club. He wasn’t intent on killing him so much as subduing him, then.
    With a lightning-quick movement, Darius swept his leg, catching his attacker in the ankles. Surprised, the man lost his balance for a moment. Darius rolled to his feet, and, taking advantage of his opponent’s unsteadiness, kicked him hard in the groin. The man dropped his sword and doubled over, in too much agony to cry out.
    Darius grabbed the discarded sword and hit the man on the back of the head with the dense, bronze handle. With a grunt he fell over, unconscious.
    “Consider it a favor,” Darius said, knowing from old experience that his attacker wouldn’t want to be awake through that pain.
    “Darius?” Sarah was kneeling on her pallet, her eyes wide with shock. Darius swallowed hard. When he had consented to having her join him on their trip, he had not expected anything more dangerous than their daily rides, which, upon occasion, brought them to high mountain passes. The thought of what might happen to her in the midst of a melee made his gut twist into a tight knot.
    He forced his voice to sound calm. “Hide behind that rock. Don’t move unless I call!”
    She didn’t stir. “ Hurry ,” he whispered, a sharp bite underlying the command. To his relief, she obeyed.
    The rest of their unknown attackers were now aware that he was not asleep and could no longer be taken by surprise. He saw Meres engaging two men while the other two headed in his direction. Darius frowned, perplexed by the fact that they seemed unarmed except