As long as it took, she supposed.
The sun was welcome heat on her skin. It had been months since she’d been out of doors in the bright light, and her body seemed to drink it in through the pitiful thinness of her clothes. Her lips became raw and tingled under the rays and the brisk wind, but she didn’t care. Her only concern at Constantine Gerard being in the keep for hours now was that soon the sun would dip behind the ruin, washing the ward in purpling shadows and despair once more, and she would be alone, with no way of knowing if he was ever coming back.
She was surprised to see the great gray beast of a dog bounding across the threshold of the wall. And as if he had come to the ruin with the express intention of seeking Theodora, he ran straight at her, his unhinged tongue flapping from the side of his mouth, his matted hair now dry and wiry-looking over his sinuous back, apparently unbothered by the lack of attention she’d shown him earlier. Or her sincere plan to have brained the dog with his master’s own cane. She sat still while he bounded across the ward, the rotund Jeremy following at some distance, not at all fearful of being attacked by the beast now.
But she became slightly warier of Erasmus’s enthusiasm when the animal failed to slow as he galloped ever closer. Dori frowned and at last held her hand down to below her knee, snapping her fingers as she’d seen her father do with his hunting hounds when she was a little girl.
“Here now,” she called out sternly. “Mind yourself and lie down if you must.”
But her eyes widened as the dog seemed to take her speaking as encouragement and increased his speed.
“No,” she called out and held her hands before her to ward off the collision that seemed imminent. She’d waited too long to rise.
Erasmus leaped at Dori in much the same manner as he had Lord Gerard, but her slight form held no leverage against the dog, who weighed more than she did, and both woman and beast went over backward on the stone with a shriek and an ecstatic whine.
The breath was knocked from her body, and even as she tried to gasp for air, her nose and mouth were covered with heavy, wet attention from the wide head before hers. She shoved at the animal, but her fists slid ineffectually off his solid muscles and sinewy limbs.
“Get . . . off!” she wheezed and then, a moment later, a blessedly cool rush of air whooshed over her as the daylight once more reached her face and Jeremy was pulling her to her feet.
Dori jerked her hands away and then bent over, bracing herself on her knees as she gasped. Once she had command of her respirations, she stood and glared at the village man and his dog, who appeared to be cowering behind his master’s back.
Jeremy held up his palms and gave her a sideways look.
“What?” Dori demanded.
“Are you going to strike me again?”
“I should!” she shouted, and then looked down at the ducking animal to give him a glare all his own while she shook out her skirts. She was fairly certain she’d heard a rip as she’d gone over backward, and there was a decided looseness about the waist of her poor underskirt. It was likely tearing free from the ties at last.
Erasmus whimpered quietly.
“He’s only happy to see you,” Jeremy informed her in a chastising tone. “Although why I can hardly say, as you’ve been naught but cross with him.”
“Excuse me,” Dori said, “but you seem to have forgotten that you’re addressing a lady.”
“You’re notmylady,” he said snidely. “And this ain’t your house, so . . . ?” He gave her a pointed look. “Where is my lord?”
“I might not be your lady but neither am I your servant to be ordered about or inquired of in such a rude manner,” she said. “So you can find him yourself.”
“Ah,” he said with an air of interest. “So that’s how it’s to be, is it?”
“I suppose it is,” she said with a lift of her nose and turned away from him.
They stayed like that in the ward, not looking at each other or speaking for the better part of a half hour. Dori eventually found her way back down onto the stone, but she turned her head sharply as she sensed the gray beast sidling through the grass to attempt to lay at her feet.
At her narrowed gaze, his advance stopped, but neither did he retreat.
Behind her, Jeremy cleared his throat. “Lord Gerard didn’t attempt to gain the interior of the ruin, did he?”
Dori didn’t so much as twitch.
“My lady,” he added, it sounded, to Dori, through gritted teeth.
She turned her head only enough to glance at him. “He did.”
“But there’s no way in,” Jeremy argued, and she could hear the concern in his voice. “How could you allow him to go, you daft woman? He could be trapped!”
Dori gained her feet and spun around, stepping first onto then over the rock to bring herself nose to nose with Jeremy.
