Siân rounded the next corner as quickly as she had the previous one. “I haven’t! I’m just going toward the darkness.”
“The darkness?” he said.
“There’s only one area of the keep that contains a roof.”
Reggie smiled. “Ah, so where there can be no sun, there is the darkness.”
“Amongst other reasons.”
Again she said something mysterious. “What other reasons would there be for darkness?”
She shrugged. “No reasons that are grounded in something you’d believe, and hopefully none I’ll have to explain.”
He clasped her elbow. “Siân, is there something that I should know?” If he hadn’t been grasping her elbow, he would have missed her stiffening upon hearing those words. “It’s just that yesterday, at your home, your manner wasn’t as imprecise.”
“Imprecise?” She jerked her elbow from his grip. “What is wrong with imprecise?”
Nothing. Except he’d been trying to pay her a compliment and failing with his clumsy,imprecisewords. What he should have said was that he admired her efficiency, her dedication. He grew up tilling the land, so he knew what it took to produce enough for family and tenants. He also knew what it meant to do more than that because you loved what you did. She showed that in her attention to detail. Why was he always stumbling around this woman?
She huffed. “I am fine, Mr. Payne, but I am cold, and this place is dark.”
And she was shivering. Something he was only aware of because he stood too close, and observed her beyond what was seemly.
He took a step back to look at their surroundings rather than the woman he couldn’t take his gaze from. “I will start a fire, then.”
“If we’re allowed,” she said.
She talked of permission as if there was anyone else in the room with them. There was no one but them. Not even the rain permeated inside.
The room she had led him into was dry, with an intact roof. The stone walls were thick, and he could barely hear the rain slashing against the structure. It was dim here, but there was an old pit, and it didn’t take long to light the fire and introduce a welcomed glow to the large room. There were still many shadows along the walls, but what surprised him was how complete the room was. It even contained furnishings.
“This place has not been plundered?”
Siân kept her eyes steady on him. “They wouldn’t dare.”
Reggie wanted to ask again about her cryptic words, and yet his words slipped away. It was easy to become enchanted by the way the growing fire illuminated the many freckles dotting her cheeks from years of sun, or how it highlighted how her sodden cape and dress clung to the tops of her breasts and hung roughly around her hips. He wanted to—He wanted to sweep her out of them to reveal and warm the softer curves underneath.
Reggie shook himself. He shouldn’t be noticing this woman in this way. It was too close, too intimate. He intended to hand her over to Charles!
Stepping away from the fire, he said, “I need to care for the other horse. Will you be well here?”
She glanced around. “I’ll start some water to boil.”
Her voice shivered. He couldn’t leave her yet.
“Siân, is there something you’re not telling me?”
Her lips parted, but she waved him off. “Go, the horses need caring for, and we need hot water.”
His hands already felt better for being near the fire.
Pivoting to leave, he paused.
“What is it?” she asked.
He peered harder in the darkness. “I thought I saw something.”
Her eyes widened as she turned to look where he did. “Already?”
