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“Does she accept it?”
That’s a different story. “She will have to.”
“Good. I get this whole plan and of course I’m on board, but please don’t forget you have to know when to show compassion. Anastasia may appear strong, but I sense something is broken inside her. Something that doesn’t feel like it’s about this.”
I narrow my eyes, curious for her to elaborate. Something must have definitely occurred today for her to say that. “Did something happen?”
“I’m not sure, but I think you should be mindful of her. She’s Uther’s daughter, but she’s a person as well. What’s happened to her is a big deal, but it feels like there’s something more underneath all that.”
I’ve read Anastasia’s medical and psych reports so I’m aware she had a difficult childhood. When she was nine, she was hit by a car and left in a coma for six months, then rehab for two years. Just as she got back to some sort of normal, her mother lost her mind, eventually killing herself. Anastasia was only fourteen. It was she who found her mother dead.
I haven’t told Ehlga about Anastasia’s background and I think it’s best I keep it that way. I don’t want her to open her heart any more than she seems to.
“I don’t want you to lose yourself in this.” Ehlga’s eyes fill with concern.
I won’t disappoint her by telling her I was lost a long time ago. Ehlga thinks she saved me, and I will honor that. When Leif first put me in her care she’d just lost both her husband and her son in an accident, so we seemed to become each other’s family.
“I will consider all things.”
“That’s good to hear.” She stops kneading the bread and judging from the pensive look she gives me, I know she has more to say that I most likely won’t like. “You’re going to have to tell her about her father one day you know?”
I was right. “I know.”
“I understand the reasons for keeping the truth from her, but she’s going to be your wife soon.”
“I know, but it has to be this way for the moment.” I’d be hellbent on getting answers if the situation were reversed. I’ve only told Anastasia just enough to terrify her into complying, but I haven’t hit the core. And I told her not to ask me again. “Right now I don’t want her to know anything about me.”
Nothing at all, not even about my father. When it comes to her, one story can’t be told without the other. Those who know what my father did aren’t going to be concerned with knowing which of his men he sent to carry out the hit on Mom and me. Anastasia, on the other hand, will figure out that it was her father.
“Really?”
“Yes. But I promise I will talk to her when the time is right.” Whenever that will be.
“Okay. I respect that.” Ehlga nods and the light comes back to her eyes. “Go, get to bed. That’s enough talking for us.”
“Don’t stay up too much longer.”
“I’ll be in bed within the hour.” She chuckles, seeming more relaxed.
I leave her and head upstairs to my room. When I get there and notice the light shining from underneath the door, I wonder if Anastasia is still awake. I open the door and my gaze settles on the beauty asleep in my bed.
All that hair of hers that I want to run my fingers through is sprawled out around her, and the moonlight mingles with the room light shining over her body.
She really is beautiful, even in her sleep.
Unlike last night, she’s wearing a loose nightshirt that shows off just the right amount of her breasts and her slender body.
When she shuffles, I move closer to her and her scent wraps around me within seconds. It’s a combination of nectar and roses and underlying feminine mystique that makes me want to pick her apart layer by layer.
Her brows wrinkle and I expect her to wake up, but she doesn’t.
She shuffles again, parting her lips to mumbles something but I can’t tell what she’s saying. I realize then that she’s dreaming. Or possibly having a nightmare from the worried expression on her face. Maybe she’s dreaming about me and I’m terrifying her even in her sleep.
Poor little princess. There’s no one to rescue her from me.
I want to strip her bare again, but this time, I want to see deeper than the surface. I want to see the wounds that created her invisible scars.
It wasn’t Gytha who gave me Anastasia’s medical records. It was Leif, because she’d lost her mother too.
