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‘I doubt she will forgive you anyway if she finds out the truth,’ he teased.
‘My sisters and I had a saying, “There is the truth, and there is the truth we tell our mother.”’
He smiled. ‘My brother and I said it a little differently. “If you tell Mother, I will kill you.”’
‘I suppose they both mean almost the same.’ She leaned closer, seeing his lashes against his cheek. The way the soft fringe and the strong jaw, lean nose and stubbled chin all formed the man.
‘I am aware the duchess is on the mend,’ he said. ‘But I don’t want to risk her learning of this.’
She rose and got another flannel and took it to the side of the bed, looking down at him.
He opened his eyes, peering into hers. ‘Stop staring at me so.’ He reached for the fabric. ‘You might as well lie beside me. You’re already ruined if anyone sees you here. It will probably look more innocent if we’re on top of the covers, looking irritated, anyway. You might as well relax.’
She didn’t want to go back to her room. To the dreams. She might have even talked to a pirate to keep from being alone. To be alone with Rhys, though, she would have fought sea savages.
She walked around the bed and sat on the other side, resting against the headboard, snuggling into the dressing gown. ‘I wanted to make sure you are not hiding pain.’
‘I’m not hiding it at all. It aches. But less than other hurts I’ve had.’ He paused. ‘Where were you going when you were in the hallway?’
‘The servants’ quarters.’
‘Were you searching for someone?’
‘No. I sometimes sleep there. In my big room, sleeping is difficult. A few nights ago, I could not get the door to latch properly and I could not rest. My bedchamber seemed so large and open that someone could have walked in on me in my sleep and I felt that I had nowhere to hide. So I took the book to a smaller room I had found. I felt safer there.’
‘You felt safer away...away from the rest of us?’
She nodded. ‘The room is more like my home on Melos. A place so small no one could hide and a single lamp could light to the very edges of the room. In Melos, I would have thought it so grand to have the plainest chamber in your house. It is far better than what I once had.’
‘Bellona, do you not respect the servants’ world?’
‘I do.’ She smiled. ‘Even your servants would think me far beneath them if they had stepped on Melos and met me right before I left my home. On Melos, the animals lived under my home and the stairs led to the two rooms above, where we lived.’
‘You’ll never have to live like that again.’
‘I miss it,’ she said. ‘I long for it every day.’
‘How could you want to return to that?’
‘I miss my sisters and my mana being together. The waves. The blue. The smell of the sea. The sand under my feet. But now I must be happy in England. I just do not know how to do that and it has been two years.’
‘It takes a bit to recover when you lose what you hold dear.’
‘I wish I could share with Mana and I wish she could see the riches here. The only thing I know is—if she had to choose and could, she would have chosen to be poor in order for us to have much. She would be so happy looking down from the heavens, although I don’t know if it is possible.’
‘Perhaps she does see this.’
‘She would not be happy I hurt you.’
He chuckled. ‘Of course not. A woman is not like that, especially a mother.’
‘Gigia. You did not know her. She would think it humorous or perhaps be angry that I let you so close to me in the hallway.’
‘I can understand a grandmother not wanting her granddaughter to be close to a man in the dark.’
‘Oh,’ she said and chuckled. ‘Gigia was not at all like you think. Not at all. She was not at all like the English and their proper ways. If she were here now she would be angry with me that I had not—’
Silence again. She knew he thought of the same thing she did. Gigia would have been angry that Bellona was not pushing her body against Rhys. But what he didn’t know was that she would have been most angry to know Bellona had not been whispering a price in his ear.
Chapter Eleven
His hand hurt like blazes where he’d cut himself on her blade—which was the only thing allowing him to keep a decent thought in his head.
No, he didn’t have a decent thought. But keeping his hand pressed against the makeshift bandage while reminding himself that he might still die of a fever kept him from pulling her against him.
She slept completely wrapped in his dressing gown, only her head poking from the top of it, concealed more chastely than any woman he’d ever seen.
