AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m not—not for myself, at least. But I am for other people.”
“That’s a bit of a paradox.”
She shrugged and grabbed her wine glass, pouring herself another brimming share of the Madeira from the carafe on the table.
“That’s what is different about your eyes.”
She looked to him. “My eyes?”
“I thought at first it was that your ire at me for tossing you on the horse had been tempered, but now I see that you’re merely soused.” His forefinger flickered to the three-quarters empty bottle. “That’s the difference.”
“Possibly.” The smallest smile eked onto her lips. She couldn’t argue it. It was hard to buoy her anger at him with this much wine in her head. “You left me in here with a full bottle of wine and no food, ordered me not to move, and have been gone for a number of hours. It was bound to happen.”
“I’m impressed you managed the will to listen to me.” He pointed to the plate of food he had set on the side of the table. “Eat.”
Elle took a sip of her Madeira, eyeing him as she did. “It just occurred to me I don’t even know if Rune is your given name or surname.”
His eyebrows lifted. “You just set off on a journey with a man that you don’t even know the name of?”
Her shoulders lifted. “There wasn’t a lot of time for details before we needed to leave. Jules trusts you. Des trusts you. That was all I needed to know.”
“That’s a lot of trust.”
“They have more than earned it.”
He nodded as his forefinger started to tap on top of the chair in front of him. “Smith is my surname.” The tapping sped and his head angled slightly to the side as though he was trying to sort something out about her. Something he didn’t care for.
She waved her hand to the table and his plate still on the large silver platter. “It looks like you intend to leave. But please, eat with me. I was terribly bored all day long.”
He didn’t make a motion to remove his plate from the platter and her look lifted to him. “Oh, I apologize. That was presumptuous of me. You have no need to be my entertainment. I realize you are accompanying me as a favor to Des.” She bit the inside of her cheek—what was she even thinking, inviting him to eat in her room? Her tongue always wagged too freely when she was foxed. The man clearly had—at the best—nothing but slight disdain for her.
For a long second he looked at her, his lower jaw working back and forth. “No, I guess…I guess I can eat with you.”
He removed his plate from the platter and set it in front of the other chair, waiting for Elle to sit before he slipped into the chair across from her.
It was interesting to watch him—his fingers on the plate, his arms, his body as he sat—all of his movements were so smooth—like a slick of olive oil through water. Silent but effective, a mastery of movement, down to the slightest twitch of his pinky finger.
She didn’t give him even a moment to pick up his fork before she pounced, the question that had been on her tongue all day burning to be spoken. “Do you think we’ll find it?”
His eyebrows lifted. “Find what?”
“Any clues as to the origin of the Box of Draupnir. When Jules talked about it at Seahorn, it made sense—find some clues in the mosaics on the walls of the Roman baths under the Marquess of Kallen’s lands. Use those clues to then deliver the box back to where it came from. But the further we get from Seahorn, the more impossible this task seems. But Jules was so certain—so certain this would work.”
His fingers wrapped onto his fork. “So you would like to abandon the mission?”
She shook her head. “No. I just fear disappointing her and Des. They need this box gone from their lives. My niece—she was almost frantic for how much she needed this to happen and Jules doesn’t get frantic. She is the epitome of calm.”
“Your niece is an unusual woman, Lady Raplan.”
“That she is.” Elle picked up her fork, pushing the tines through the long beans that wrapped the edge of the plate. “Why do you never speak my given name? I’ve given you permission more than once, but I have only heard the formality of my title from you.”
His hand holding his fork paused in midair for a second before diving into the slab of roasted beef. He didn’t look up at her. “If I call you by your name I become like you. I am not like you.”
“Because of my title?”
He chewed his bite of beef, set his fork down, poured a glass of wine and drank half of it before his look met hers. For a long second as he held her stare, she didn’t think he’d answer, but then he set his glass down and his gaze settled on her. “Because of entitlement. You’ve been entitled to everything in your life. Always. I see it in your actions, in your soul. Everything you’ve ever wanted, you’ve gotten. You are not like me. Not at all.”
Her head snapped back. “You don’t know what you speak of.”
