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“Don’t open your eyes!” Robert, her normally levelheaded, calm and extremely rational husband snapped, sounding somewhat hysterical and bringing up her level of terror to a whole new level she’d never thought possible.
“Are they gone?” she whispered, almost too afraid to say it any louder, terrified that it would either make her pass out again or vomit, because if she thought about what she’d seen for even one second, she would probably lose it.
Kind of like the way that Robert was apparently losing it right now.
She’d known him since she was a baby and she’d never seen him like this, heard terror in his voice before and considering everything that she’d done to him over the years, that was-
Actually, not a very comforting thought, because she’d done some really disturbing and mean things to him over the years. Never once had he reacted like this before and honestly, she prayed that it never happened again.
“Yes?” he answered hesitantly, sounding more like a question and not really reassuring her all that much while she laid there, face down in the mud in the middle of the woods where anyone could stumble across them.
There was also the fact that she could feel his trembling hands moving over her skin, plucking here and there and making her wince and squeeze her eyes shut as she desperately tried to think about something else, anything else, but with every pluck and brush of his fingers against her goose-bumped skin, she was reminded of what he was doing.
She slowly licked her lips, trying to find the courage that she needed to ask if he was lying to her, but before she could manage to ask, she felt his two strong hands gently grab hold of her hip and shoulder and slowly roll her over onto her back.
“Oh…fuck…me…no,” he said hoarsely.
She knew that she shouldn’t have opened her eyes. She did. She wasn’t stupid. She knew what she was going to see, but more importantly she knew from Robert’s tone that it was definitely something that she didn’t want to see. Yet, knowing all of that didn’t stop her from foolishly opening her eyes, raising her head high enough so that she could look down at her body and-
Scream.
*-*-*-*
Oh, God…
Oh, God…
Oh, God…
Oh, God…
“Oh…fuck…me…no,” he said before he could stop himself and God, how he wished he’d stopped himself, because he knew exactly what would happen once the words slipped out of his mouth, but he couldn’t help it.
He really couldn’t.
He’d known what to expect after seeing her back, but nothing could have prepared him for this. Absolutely nothing, he thought numbly as he stared down at the beautiful body that he loved holding at night, the one that brought him joy and pleasure as well as the one that created his children, the only people on this earth could rival Elizabeth for his heart.
Swallowing hard, he reached out with a trembling hand, prepared to remove the first one marring her skin when he realized that she was screaming. It took him a few more seconds to realize that his still-screaming wife was now sitting up and slapping somewhat hysterically at the black blobs covering her body, but it was useless.
The little bastards refused to give up their treat quite so easily.
“Get them off!” Elizabeth screamed, startling him enough to move his ass and grab her hands before she could make it worse.
“Stop!” he snapped, pressing her hands down by her sides and holding them there when all he wanted to do was to tear the little bloodsucking bastards marring her skin off and throw them as far away from her as possible, but he couldn’t do that. One of them needed to remain calm and unfortunately for her, it had to be him.
“Minx!” he snapped, giving her a little shake, just enough to get her to stop screaming and trying to fight him. “You’re okay!”
Her scream ended on a gasp as she forced herself to stop fighting him. It was probably one of the hardest things that she’d done in her life, besides taking a chance on him that is, and he was proud of her. He leaned in and pressed his lips against her forehead as he kept his hold on her arms, terrified that she would try to remove one of the leeches and end up tearing her skin open and exposing her to an infection that could take her away from him.
“I’m going to get them off, sweetheart, but I need you to stay still,” he whispered, praying that she wouldn’t argue with him for once and thanking God when she actually listened to him.
With a little nod and a little sob that nearly killed him, his brave minx closed her eyes and lay back down on the cold, muddy ground, completely trusting him to take care of her, to do his job. Closing his eyes, he slowly exhaled, praying that he could do this without losing his fucking mind. Knowing that he couldn’t put it off any longer, he opened his eyes, picked up the small twig that he’d sharpened and set to work, using the trick that his brother had taught him when he was a child and had made the mistake of trying to use a leech as bait, thinking that it was easier to use than a worm.
It hadn’t been.
If it hadn’t been for his brother he’d probably still be running towards Scotland, screaming and trying his best to tear the large black leech off before it could devour his arm. Before he could make it fifty feet, James had him pinned to the ground and was calmly using the tip of a small stick to remove the leech. He never thought that trick would come in handy and he sure as hell hadn’t thought that he would need to use it on his wife one day.
Then again, he never thought he’d be married and hopelessly in love with the little girl that had once dubbed him Robert Lemonade, he mused with a sigh as he set to work on removing the large leach attached to Elizabeth’s hip.
Chapter 9
“Elizabeth-”
“Don’t,” she said, pausing to lick her lips as she tightened her arms around herself, taking a slow steadying breath as she turned her head away, not caring that her eyes were already closed and that she couldn’t see him, she just needed to look away, “just don’t.”
“Sweetheart, they’re gone,” he said softly as she felt his hand touch her arm, making her flinch as the memory of what had covered that arm only moments ago flashed through her mind.
They weren’t gone.
They would never be gone, but she couldn’t say that because he didn’t understand and hopefully, he never would. She just needed a moment to forget that she’d just spent the last three days scrubbing floors in a cockroach infested inn to make sure that her husband, who really should have known better than to eat anything that Mrs. Kinnley cooked, recovered, that everything they owned was either stolen or destroyed, that she was starving, exhausted, had just taken a bath with leeches, was now sitting on the cold wet ground, covered in mud, naked and that her dress was now a mud-soaked pile of shredded rags, or that this was easily the worst trip that she’d ever been on. She just wanted to go home, scrub every inch of her body, pull on one of Robert’s shirts, snuggle with her baby boys and pretend that this trip had never happened.
“I’m sorry,” Robert said softly as he carefully took her hand into his.
“It’s fine,” she lied, deciding that this trip had been bad enough and that they didn’t need a fight on top of everything to make it worse.
; She just wanted to go home and pretend that this had just been a horrible dream.
“I’ll make this up to you, minx,” Robert said, for the first time in their marriage making her a promise that she knew that he would never be able to keep, but she didn’t say anything, mostly because she was struggling not to cry.
She was exhausted, hungry, cold, wet, covered in mud, her skin stung and itched from where the leeches had attached themselves and she was miserable, absolutely miserable. All she wanted to do was to crawl on Robert’s lap, bury her face against his chest and cry, but she would never do that to him, because she knew how hard he’d worked so that he could take her on this trip.
“I’m fine,” she mumbled, refusing to give in to the tears and make a bigger fool out of herself. She just wanted…she just wanted…
“Oh, minx,” Robert said hoarsely as she suddenly found herself exactly where she wanted to be.
“I’m fine,” she mumbled with a sniffle as she wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly.
He sighed heavily as he wrapped his arms around her and stood up. “Sure you are,” he said, gently placing her on her feet and stepped back away from her, but before she could register the loss, he’d pulled his shirt and coat off and quickly wrapped her in it before he leaned over and swept her off her feet and sat down. “I will make this up to you,” he said as he leaned down pressed his lips against her forehead, “I swear to God that I will make this up to you.”
Knowing just how hard he’d worked to save for this trip and what saving up for another one would mean, she shook her head. She
