Chopped off!
Oh dear Lord!
Even Vee appeared concerned at that. “I shall check him every half hour, Mrs. Witherspoon.” Then she gave her a look. One that told her to shut up and stop scaring him. “There will be no gangrene on my watch.”
“No doubt the doctor will want to do a thorough examination to be sure. I’ll go chivy him now. I’ve also got a pot of soup on the stove. I’ll bring some over once it’s ready as the doctor said we need to warm our hero’s insides, too.” The matron smiled kindly as she squeezed his arm. “God bless you, Sir Galahad. You saved the day.” A compliment that did not cheer him in the slightest now that the prospect of being a eunuch loomed on the horizon.
After Mrs. Witherspoon left, Venus went to stoke the fire. While she did, Gal did a quick, precautionary fumble around what Muldoon called his wedding vegetables to check that they were blister-free and sighed aloud when he realized his groin still possessed some feeling.
Instantly, Venus’s head snapped around. “Are you all right?”
“As ninepence,” he said as he guiltily let go of his chilled genitals beneath the covers. “Isn’t that what you British say?”
“It is.” She smiled in obvious relief as she turned back to the fire. “Although I have no idea why.”
Venus had left the room while the doctor examined him an hour later, but Gal could sense her hovering behind the door listening. Even so, once the doctor let her back in, she still asked a million questions until she was satisfied he wasn’t about to die and followed him downstairs so she could probe some more out of earshot.
He hoped it was all evidence that she cared.
While she was gone, he took the opportunity to leave the bed, which was to be his prison until the morning, to stretch his thawing limbs and grab a shirt from his new wardrobe. He much preferred to sleep naked, but to be naked and shriveled with her sitting by his bed watching him like a hawk had made him self-conscious. He’d feel less vulnerable covered, especially if she intended to keep vigil all night as she had threatened.
Checking first that the coast was clear, he padded quickly across the room and began to rifle in his closet. His fingers found the shirt as the door reopened, and in the absence of anything else to cover his modesty, he used that as she walked through it.
“It seems, miraculously, that despite everything you are indeed as right as nine…” He wasn’t sure which of them was more surprised by her swift and silent return. Her eyes raked the length of him before they rested, transfixed, on the strategically placed bunched linen in his fists covering his unmentionables. “You arenotsupposed to be out of bed!”
“I know but—”
“You need to stay warm!” From nowhere, the schoolmistress had returned, and for some reason she was furious. “What is the matter with you!” She came at him, magic finger wagging. “What are you thinking?” She gripped his upper arms and shook. “Whatwereyou thinking! What were you thinking, Galahad, to jump into that water!”
All at once she was crying as she admonished him. Ugly, noisy crying that came from somewhere deep inside.
“You could have died, you idiot!” She pushed him, her face contorted. Wretched. “You could have died, Galahad!Died!” A tortured, feral sound came out. Part snort. Part growl. Part scream. She raised her fist as if she was going to hit him with it then pressed it to her mouth fighting for calm. But even that didn’t prevent the noisy outpouring of emotion that he had absolutely no clue how to deal with. “You scaredthe hell out of me!” She lunged and pushed him back against the wardrobe with two splayed hands. “You could have died!”
“I know… I’m sorry… I…” Gal hadn’t seen her look this terrifying since the night they had met, when she had flown out of nowhere and pinned him to the ground ready to kill him. Her rage was that visceral again.
Yet this wasn’t just rage.
He understood that, despite not knowing what to do about it beyond blink dumbfounded and keep apologizing. “But I’m not dead… I’m all right… You heard the doctor… I’m all right, Venus…”
“More by luck thanjudgment!” She screamed that, her hands fisting against his chest. When she drew them away, she stared at them for an age, then up at him shaking them. “But if you ever do something like that again, you will be! Because I’ll kill you myself!”
Her eyes were wild with fear and relief. “I almost lost you… I’ve only just realized that I love you and I almost lost you!”
His head spun as his heart rejoiced. “You… love me?”
In answer, she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his head as she kissed him. It was a hard, brutal, and angry kiss, and yet it was utterly perfect just the same.
Because she loved him and that was everything.
While he kissed her back, her hands checked him everywhere—face, neck, shoulders—clawing at him as she pressed her body against his with animalistic fervor.
Gal’s desire was instant.
Hot and all-consuming. The need to have her, all of her, suddenly as necessary as the air in his lungs.
In a tangle of limbs, lips, and longing, they staggered toward the bed as one. When she stumbled, he lifted her rather than delay their journey. Hauling her upward so she could wrap her legs around his waist and plunge her hands in his hair.
He practically threw her on the mattress and then fell on her whilethey both wrestled with her skirts. When he hesitated, when the significance of the moment finally hit him, she filled her hands with his backside and dragged him close. “Take me… Have me…”
