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He did not speak as he dragged his weakened, hurt limbs toward the home he’d lost for so long. His jaw was clenched with determination, and his brow was dotted with sweat.
She hurried a few steps to catch up with him when he stumbled over a rock, and put her shoulder under his arm, looping it around her, as she wound one arm around his narrow waist, supporting some of his weight.
“We’re almost there, Sai,” she murmured.
“Just a few feet more.”
Really, it was a few dozen yards more, but she was trying to be encouraging.
Her words seemed to bolster him, for he sucked in a deep breath and straightened his spine. Standing taller, picking up his pace.
With her help, they arrived at the water’s edge. She stood facing him as his hands clasped her upper arms loosely.
They both knew that he was holding onto her for support, for he was inches from collapse. His entire body shuddered from the exertion of walking this far. She didn’t know how he managed to stay on his horse for almost five hours of riding at such a brisk pace.
“I’m going to help you get undressed,” she told him as if he was a toddler, and she, his nurse.
“Unless you can materialize new clothes after you get these wet?” she asked, raising her eyes to look into his.
He shook his head infinitesimally, as if a larger movement would cost him too much strength. His diamond eyes were glazed with pain, no longer sparkling like they always did. Fine lines etched around the corners of his eyes, between his brows and around his mouth.
Why hadn’t he said anything if he was in so much pain? They could have taken a rest along the way.
But Brigid knew that, one, Sai was not the type of male to complain about his own discomforts. And two, he, more than anyone, wanted to get here without a moment to lose.
Wordlessly, she began to unbutton his coat, his vest, the buttons of his sleeves. She’d never undressed a man before, but it was rather easy compared to all the buttons, ties and ribbons she had to contend with herself, now that she had no lady’s maid.
She couldn’t wait to return to Castle Mar where she stored all of her “adventure” clothes. In other words, where she ran wild around the property dressed like a boy.
When she crouched down to help him out of his riding boots, she barely noticed that he was half naked in his gaping white shirt and loosened trousers. She was trying to be as efficient as possible, and she was trying to get this all done without him having to sit down.
For, she didn’t know if he had the strength to get up again. And she didn’t thinkshehad the strength to heave him to his feet if he couldn’t get there himself.
The man might be weak and wounded, but he was made of tempered steel, Brigid was absolutely certain. Though he’d barely leaned on her as she walked with him, she felt like she’d been carrying a five-hundred-pound anvil.
“Do you…ah…need help for the last few—” she stuttered, looking down at his bare feet.
She’d never seen such attractive feet before! So gracefully arched and…big.
“No,” came the terse reply.
She kept her eyes cast down as those feet departed her view as he walked on his own steam, perhaps the very last vestiges of it, toward the water.
When she heard a soft splash, she finally dared to look up, squinting a little in case she inadvertently (or on purpose) caught a glimpse of his nakedness.
This was not the time to be ogling the man’s godly physique, Brigid chided herself as she looked out at the sea with one eye open and one eye closed.
A rather fitting representation of the two sides within her that warred for supremacy: the one that wanted to feast her sights uponherdragon, her prince, and the one that was trained from birth to honor the rules of propriety.
But there was nothing at all to see. Sai had disappeared entirely.
Brigid scanned the mildly churning waves for a sign of him, of where he might have waded or dove into the water. But she found no evidence of his entry. It was as if he’d simply vanished into thin air.
She gathered his shirt and trousers and walked to the edge of the beach, until the water ebbed and waned around her feet, loosening the sands she stood upon and dampening the hem of her skirt.
“Where are you?” she murmured to herself, staring unblinkingly into the distance, intent upon the waves.
Shouldn’t he need to come back up for air at some point? Even if he was a sea dragon?
