The Claiming by Kaitlyn O'Connor Page A

certain she knew why Alain had insisted on riding with her. He suspected she was not who she professed to be and hoped he could trip her up and discover the truth.
    She dismissed that anxiety almost at once, however. She knew what he was up to. Therefore, she could prevent it.
    She was far more interested in figuring out a way to evade him and proceed with her plan.
    It occurred to Jana presently, however, that no such opportunity was likely to arise. That realization made her wonder if she should simply abandon her quest till a more opportune moment. Since it was brought forcefully upon her at that moment that she had, in her preoccupation, turned toward her intended destination, she blinked in surprise and drew her Zell to an abrupt halt.
    Alain reined in beside her, favoring her with a look of puzzled amusement.
    After a rather blank moment, Jana nudged her Zell into motion once more, deciding there might yet arise an opportunity to outmaneuver him and see her errand accomplished beneath his nose. She could hardly turn back now at any rate without arousing suspicions she'd just as soon not.
    Since she realized then, too, that she'd been quiet entirely too long, and that Alain was liable to start asking unpleasant questions at any moment, she decided to forestall him. She began to babble quite gaily on any subject that struck her fancy, exclaiming at length on the beauty of the scenery, the mildness of the weather and the progress of the crops they passed. She chattered about any subject, in fact, that was unlikely to provoke questions from Alain regarding her background, since she was naturally entirely ignorant of the real Jana's past.
    Belatedly, she realized that she had, all unwittingly, fallen into precisely the trap she'd meant to avoid. When Alain asked her if the scenery differed greatly from what she was accustomed to, she gaped at him, aghast, for several unnerving moments while her color changed from perfectly white to bright crimson and back again. She managed a shrug finally. "Not really," she muttered.
    Silence reigned for perhaps a minute. Jana was just beginning to relax when he spoke again.
    "Did you enjoy farming?"
    Jana favored him with a hunted look. The woman was a farming? What was a farming? "Oh yes," she answered lightly, and seeing that he was on the point of asking another question, cast about frantically for something, anything, to divert him. On spying a carpet of wildflowers, she gasped, jerked back sharply on the reins and slid to the ground. "Oh, what lovely flowers!" she breathed ecstatically.
    “Don’t!” Alain said sharply.
    Pretending deafness, Jana rushed into the field, bending to pluck several blossoms. As she straightened, she lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the bright sunlight and gazed out over the field of flowers that grew in such profusion. The sheer abundance of bright blossoms was strangely thrilling. She felt breathless just looking at them.
    In a very few minutes she was so caught up in her task she forgot all about the reason for it. She began to enjoy herself hugely, delighting in her growing bouquet, the sunshine and the cool breeze that snatched at her skirts and loosened feathery tendrils of hair around her face. She felt lightheaded, almost intoxicated with the heady smell of the bright flowers.
    Alain dismounted and led their Zells to the shade of a tree to tether them. After studying her for several moments, he started across the field toward her. “Jana, come out of the field.”
    Jana laughed, tossing the bouquet of flowers she’d gathered. Then, gathering her skirts, she skipped further into the field.
    He strode purposefully toward her. Jana danced out of reach.
    He rushed her then. Jana ran, but she was far shorter than Alain. Within moments, she felt his arm around her waist and they tumbled to the ground in a mound of brightly covered flowers. When they rolled to a stop, Jana was on her back beneath him.
    Jana looked up at Alain’s serious