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She might even have fallen asleep, if the water hadn’t cooled and a low distant rumble hadn’t made her lift her head.
Wrapping a sarong around her and towelling her wet hair, she padded back into the bedroom in time to see a flash of light at the stone mullioned window; the accompanying rumble came some time after.
The storm was a long way off.
She pulled on the neatly arranged slip that lay on the bed—having someone pick out her nightdress for her was a first—and climbed into the bed feeling like the princess in one of her favourite childhood fairy tales. She had once taken a pea from her dinner plate hoping to be able to feel it, but she had failed the royal test miserably.
CHAPTER NINE
SHEHADN’TEXPECTEDto sleep but, under acres of goose down and silk, exhaustion claimed her almost immediately. Her awakening was as abrupt as her sleep was deep and dreamless. Sitting bolt upright in bed in the pitch black for several seconds, she did not even know her name, let alone where she was, and then the total blackout was briefly broken by a flash of white light that seeped around the heavy drapes outlining the two windows on the opposite wall.
A second later the crash came, no longer a distant rumble; it sounded as though it was directly overhead. Reaching out in the darkness, she fumbled for the lamp, a few more fumbles and she found the cord switch—nothing happened.
She took a deep breath and waited for the angry rumble to pass. Anna was not terrified of storms, but they were not her favourite thing. She used the next flash of lightning to locate her phone and switched on the torch.
Her relief was tinged by caution when she saw that the charge was low. She slid aside the covers; a quick tour of the room’s light switches confirmed her initial suspicion that there was a power outage.
She picked up the old-fashioned internal phone and noted that it did indeed rely on the power supply and the charge on her phone showed her only light source was about to run out.
The idea of cowering under the covers for the rest of the night while what sounded like Armageddon raged outside her window did not hold much appeal.
Switching off her torch to conserve what power she had, Anna was about to lie down when she remembered the burnt-down candle beside the bath that had made her wonder who before her had used the bathroom, and had a couple shared the massive bath.
She made it to the bathroom just as the power on her phone faded out.
‘Do not panic, Anna.’
Her words were drowned out by an extra-loud thunder crash. Arms outstretched, she visualised the room in the dark, managing to find the cool marble edge of the bath.
She considered one bruised shin after a misstep was a price well worth the prize when she located the candle and the silver matchbox beside it.
The one match inside made her heart drop a little but, with an expression of fierce concentration on her face, she took a deep breath and struck the match. Still holding her breath, she applied it to the candle wick.
A moment later the small flame caught, and the room was gently illuminated. Her initial triumph was short-lived when she saw how little of the candle remained. Her light supply was still limited so it looked as if sleep was her only option. The depressing thought triggered a light-bulb moment—which seemed pretty appropriate in the circumstances.
She was sure that she remembered the row of stone niches just before they reached the door to her suite, each one filled with an ornate candelabra complete with candles.
It had been really close and she was sure it would be easy to locate, she just had to literally follow her nose.
It became apparent very soon that her confidence was misplaced, the following-her-nose thing had not worked out so well and, as the candle she was carrying was burning low, the sensible, actually theonlycourse of action left open to her was to retrace her steps.
As she reached a second junction that she had not previously noticed she didn’t even bother debating which one to take; it didn’t matter. She was totally lost in this damned maze of a castle wearing nothing but her nightdress—however this situation ended, it was not going to be ego-enhancing and it was going to be in the dark.
If she found her way to her bedroom, it would be sheer luck, and hers, and the candle, seemed to be running out.
She was debating what would happen if she just screamed out for help when the corridor was lit by a lightning flash that came through an open door to her left. As the thunder rumbled she stepped towards it, pushing the heavy metal-banded door, which swung in silently to reveal a room that was so massive her flickering candle barely penetrated the blackness. As she was about to step out there was another lightning flash that shone in through a row of high windows that almost reached the black-and-white-checked floor of a room with a dizzyingly high vaulted ceiling.
Before the lights faded she saw the echoing space was totally empty apart from a grand piano in one corner and, of more significance, the candles sitting on the stone sills along one wall—not one or two, but dozens.
She stumbled a little in her haste as she crossed the room and, by some sort of miracle and with the help of her tiny guiding flame, which was getting fainter by the second, found them at the first attempt. Her hand shaking, she held her breath as she lit the first one, which revealed a jar of long tapers, so, putting down her guttering candle, she picked one up and began to light the others, leaving a trail of flickering flames in her wake as she moved down the room.
After the next lightning flash, the room was not as dark and she stepped back in awe, her head falling back to view the awesome splendour of the frescoes painted on the intricate barrelled ceiling.
Anna did a slow full three-sixty spin. She was standing in the middle of a ballroom straight from a fairy tale. Windows down one wall, a massive fireplace on the opposite one. The rows of chandeliers suspended from the intricate ceiling caught the candlelight and revealed the steps she had avoided bumping into at the far end that led to the raised dais that housed the grand piano. There was enough room for a full orchestra to join it.
Utterly enchanted, she forgot that she was lost, forgot that she was barefoot and dressed in a nightdress, and she climbed up on the dais and lifted the lid of the piano, pressing a key... Hearing the sound bounce back at her, she really wished she could play, but despite her lack of skill she could hear the music in her head.
The gym was at basement level and the music playing in his ears had drowned out everything else as he pounded his way up a virtual hill, pushing his body to the physical limit and then beyond, working towards some sort of relief from the hunger that was gnawing at him. It was not complicated, it was sex, hormones—his need to reassure himself of the fact was annoying.
