AllFreeNovel
Share Us
expression relaxed, a warm glint lighting her eyes. “I thought you didn’t believe in healing.”
“I thought I didn’t believe at all.”
Tenderly, Ariana raised up and kissed her husband’s mouth. Easing back on her haunches, she yawned. “I’m suddenly very sleepy. And now that I no longer doubt Odysseus will recover, I’d like to get some rest.” She snuggled into the blanket. “I was right, you know.” Her eyes drifted shut. “You really are a wonderful man.”
Trenton stared soberly down at his slumbering wife, her affirmation echoing in his mind. A wonderful man. The fact that Ariana believed that of him was, in itself, an unexpected wonder.
But the true miracle was that, for the first time in eons, Trenton began to believe it himself.
The woman watched the French shoreline grow more and more indistinct, until it disappeared altogether, leaving nothing behind but miles of ocean and years of agony.
She lifted the hood of her mantle higher over her head, gripping it against her cheeks to block out the sharp winds and icy sprays. In truth, she hardly felt them. Long ago she had learned to block out physical discomfort by retreating into a secret place inside herself. It had become her means of survival.
Slowly, she averted her head, looking, for the first time in six years, toward England. And for the first time in six years, a ripple of anticipation stirred within her, growing quickly into a steady pulse, spreading like a long-craved narcotic through her greedy bloodstream.
“Ma’am? May I get you something?” The straight-backed crewman stood politely beside her, crisply accommodating and, perhaps, a bit curious.
The woman didn’t turn. “No. Thank you.”
She listened to his steps fade away until she was, once again, alone. No, he could get her nothing. As always, what she wanted, she would have to take herself.
And take it she would.
CHAPTER
16
“NOW I UNDERSTAND WHY you abruptly lost your appetite at dinner,” Trenton commented dryly, lounging against the barn wall. “That beef was supposedly your meal.”
Ariana jumped up as if she’d been caught stealing something. “I really wasn’t hungry.”
“But Odysseus was?” Trenton strolled past her, over to the crate, where the owl was finishing off the slice of lean meat. “He certainly has improved these past few days—not surprising, given meals like roasted sirloin. Still, I thought you said something about restricting him to plain, lean beef?”
“I scraped off every bit of horse radish and pepper,” Ariana defended instantly. “Besides, he’s hardly eaten anything all week. The first three days all he did was sleep. Yesterday he ate bits of veal, but this is the first decent meal he’s had.”
“Meals,” Trenton corrected.
“Pardon me?”
“Meals … not one, but two.”
“It’s only a slice of meat—”
“His second in the past hour.”
Ariana inclined her head. “I don’t understand.”
With apparent concentration, Trenton studied the wooden beam beside him. “I gave him a portion of my dinner while you were in the kitchen.”
“I see.” Ariana managed to keep her face straight. “Well then, I suppose he has had enough for now.” She cast a loving glance at Odysseus, who stared back at her, unblinking and alert. “In another day or two you’ll be fit enough to fly, dear friend. But not if you’re laden with pounds of beef.”
“Ariana … I need to speak with you.”
The seriousness of Trenton’s tone startled her. “What is it?”
Trenton held out a note. “This message just arrived from my solicitor. Evidently, my permission, and my presence, are required in London in order to transfer a large sum of money to my bank account here in Wight. I need to complete that transfer so I can begin the renovations I designed for an entire section of farmhouses in Bembridge.”
“You’re leaving for Broddington?”
