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“How long will Matitus and Dragus be gone?” I ask.

He tenses slightly and turns to wash his plate.

“They will be back when they can,” he says, turning the tap off and facing me.

“What?”

“A couple days Lora, then they will be back”

“A couple of days?” I ask, and I feel myself start to panic. They left me with him for a couple of days?

“It will be fine, you have me here,” he says, reaching forward but I step back. He drops his hand with a sigh. “It will be fine, you will be fine,” he says as I shake my head feeling tears well up. “Lora?” he asks as I turn around leaving and heading for my room.

I’m pissed, unable to believe they would abandon me—this far along and with Silas of all people.

Stepping into my former room, I find a huge wooden board covering the hole where the tree crashed through. Rocks from the stone walls litter the floor.

Frustrated, I head out to grab a bucket and broom, spotting Silas slipping through the front doors as I reach the cleaning cupboard. Grabbing what I need, I return to the room, ready to clean up the mess myself.

It takes a couple hours to clean up the mess the tree made. We have to keep running buckets back and forth outside to discard the rocks. When I finish, I go find some logs for the fireplace. Stacking them in, I then change the bed linen. The day passes by quickly when I decide to go look for something to read. Walking in the study, I freeze when I see Silas sitting at his desk. He looks up when he notices me walking in.

“Where have you been?” he asks, watching as I rummage through the bookshelf for something I haven’t read yet.

“In the room,” I tell him. Grabbing one off the shelf I walk out heading back when he calls out to me.

“Have you had lunch?” he asks.

“Yep,” I lie, quickly walking off before he realizes that I’m not telling the truth. Honestly I am afraid of eating with my stomach doing backflips all day.