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She wiggled around, towards him, and the dip in the bed helped him roll ever so slightly towards her.
Miss Roman Warrior Goddess could have killed him with her very sharp knife, but he’d immediately wanted to reassure her when she’d discovered she’d accidentally sliced him.
Flames nicked at him everywhere, but he wasn’t feverish.
His body still had the cravings of a youth, but his mind had advanced somewhat. He had rules. He had managed for quite some time to keep out of a woman’s bed. He turned over. But now one was in his bed and she was sleeping peacefully.
He should have married before now.
He just wished... He just wished he had wed the previous year. He should have. Then his wife would have been settled by now. Most likely, a child would have been on the way and Rhys could have threaded his fingers through his wife’s mussed hair and rested his cheek against her skin.
His boots were on so he couldn’t get under the covers. He’d have to call his valet to be undressed. If he did that, she would have to leave. He wouldn’t be able to sleep. He’d be lying there, bleeding and thinking of her.
She turned in her sleep. Her arm went around his midsection, jolting him, and he rested his clasped hands at the side, his arm just against her hand, keeping it snug to his body.
It would be for ever until morning, but the time would pass too soon.
* * *
Bellona awoke with a dim light flickering in the room and the sound of rain pounding against the house. Rhys sat in the overstuffed chair, which had been turned towards the bed. His left arm propped his head and she couldn’t tell for sure if his eyes were open.
She pushed herself into a sitting position.
‘It’s morning,’ Rhys said. ‘Or it will be soon. You should leave before someone discovers you.’
‘Your hand?’
He held it closer to the light. A blood-caked slice went from the bottom knuckle of his forefinger to the heel of his hand. He waved his fingers.
She put a foot on the floor, and looked at the night table. ‘Will you return my knife?’
‘Do you truly believe you need it here?’
‘No.’
He reached to the drawer, pulled out the knife and handed it to her, the blade facing himself.
‘I’ll put it away,’ she said. She held the cold handle and looked at the weapon. The crumpled flannel, coloured with darkened red, lay on the nightstand.
The knife no longer made her feel safe or secure. Now it felt poisonous. The men who had frightened her in the past had hurt her from a world away.
Next, he picked up one of the shards of glass from the floor and put it on the table. ‘You should take the real weapon from this room. My valet will believe the culprit was the broken glass. But I don’t want him to see a knife in my room where there has been none before because he would surmise something. What exactly, I don’t know, but I don’t want to take the risk.’
He lowered his voice. ‘Bellona, if you have fears in the night, I will check to make certain no one is there.’
‘When Thessa and I were taken on the island, it was from our beds in the dead of night. I fear what happens when I sleep. But this time waking was the most dangerous course. I am sorry.’
She rose, reached for the tip of his fingers and examined his hand, putting the image of the injury into her mind as strongly as she could. This she would remember when she thought of the blood and felt fear, because this could result. She must control herself. She couldn’t live in terror any longer. ‘The hallway is long. If I have trouble sleeping, I’ll sleep in the room below stairs. I feel safer there. If I shout, someone will hear. I don’t want to see anyone’s blood again and know I caused it. I can’t.’
‘You should not be below stairs. You are a guest. We have family rooms all about.’ He waved his arm, then he dropped it to his side, grimacing. ‘Just no family to fill them any more.’
She turned away. Only one person had the task of filling the rooms and she did not want to think about that.
‘I will be leaving to go back to Whitegate soon,’ she said. ‘There I’ll sleep in the nursery near the children if I need to. When I watch them, the world doesn’t seem quite the same dark place. It seems like there’s sunshine in the night.’
‘I know how much better you’ve made the duchess while you’ve been here,’ he said. ‘I suppose there is a reason the mourning time is a year. Perhaps that’s just how long it takes for everyone and I shouldn’t have been so concerned. But after Geoff passed, she crumpled, seeming to fall into the past, and even I could not rouse her.’
Bellona knew the duchess had been moving about Harling House more. She even talked of other things besides her grief. Bellona could leave without concern, and if she stayed it would be foolish. Being at Harling House when Rhys returned with a wife would not be wise.
