“I heard your voice, but not what you said.”
“Do you think I would let you go out alone on a night like this?” he demanded in his unstrung tone. “It’s no night for a man to be out, much less a woman!”
“You mean—you followed me?”
“What else did you think I’d do?”
“And on foot?”
“If I had stopped to get a horse I’d have lost your direction. So I ran after you.”
They were moving on now, his hand upon the back of her saddle to link them together in the darkness. He had to lean close to her that their voices might be heard above the storm.
“And you have run after me all this way?”
“Ran and walked. But I couldn’t make much headway in the storm—Calling out to you every few steps. I didn’t know what might have happened to you. All kinds of pictures were in my mind. You might have been thrown and be lying hurt. In the darkness the horse might have wandered off the road and slipped with you into the river. It was—it was——” She felt the strong forearm that lay against her back quiver violently. “Oh, why did you do it!” he burst out.