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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] He sent her a speculative glance. I am not concerned. She smiled. I am sure you are not, and I do not doubt that you are capable of taking care of yourself, but I would not want trouble on my account. I will eat the bread also. She settled on the opposite side of the table from him, realizing that the longer she argued the matter with him the more determined he would probably be to go himself. You will try not to get into trouble, though? He seemed to consider that for several moments and finally shrugged. Yes. She was not greatly reassured, but she left it at that. When they d finished eating, she got up to clean and search for something to trade. There was no livestock to use in trade, but she remembered that the miller s wife liked pretty things and dug around in her mother s chest until she had found a gown she was willing to part with. That was your mother s. Lilith glanced at him in surprise. How did you know that? He looked disconcerted. That is your mother s chest. Oh. Yes, and I am reluctant to part with it but Mother would have thought that I was daft to consider keeping something I can not use when I--we, need the food. Bundling it carefully, she explained how much she thought he should be able to get for it and sent him along his way, watching worriedly until he was out of sight. She decided, though, once she had examined the pile of wood that he had cut that he could not be in any more danger from the villagers than he was from himself. She decided to hide the ax before he managed to hack his foot off with it. She did not want to embarrass him, and she was afraid that she would not be able to express her concerns over him injuring himself without wounding his male pride. Hiding the ax seemed the most prudent thing to do. After surveying the garden and the shed, she was forced to admit that they would have to work very hard--assuming that Gaelen did stay a while--or they would not have enough food to keep body and soul together. Her first garden had been ruined, but it was still early enough in the year, she thought, that she could replant it. She spent the morning gathering what she could from the demolished garden and storing it and then reworked the rows and planted what seed she had left. It would not be a very large crop, she thought wryly, rubbing her back absently when she had finished, and if Gaelen did stay they would need more food even than she usually grew for herself. Glancing at the sky, she saw that the sun was almost directly overhead. Her stomach rumbled with hunger at just about the time she noted the noon hour, but she was hot and sweaty from working the garden. LABYRINTH OF THE BEAST Desiree Acuna 79 After a brief mental debate, she decided that it would be safe enough to go down to the brook herself and bathe. Gaelen was not likely to return for several hours yet. Stoking the fire again when she went inside, she tossed what was left of the food into her cook pot to make a stew and settled it where it would cook slowly and then gathered what she would need for a bath and headed to the brook. The water was icy. Mostly she was glad it was, because there was an endless supply of cool water to drink and the water helped to preserve some of her foodstuffs, but it was not a pleasant place to bathe and she always found herself dreading the first few moments until she became accustomed to the chill. Today was no different, but she was not confident enough in her guess of the time when Gaelen would return to want to linger anyway. Scrubbing herself quickly with the soap she d brought, she rinsed off as quickly and stepped from the brook, shivering, breathless from the chill. The Hawkin, she discovered, had settled on the fallen log where she d left her change of dress. She came to a jolting halt. It wasn t until his gaze moved over her with patent, heated interest, though, that she recovered enough from her surprise to cover herself. She glared at him. What are you doing here? He sat up. I came to talk. She d forgotten she had promised him that she would try to think of a way to help him with his lady love. I am not dressed! No. You must go away until I am dressed! she said sharply when he made no attempt to leave. His brows rose. It bothers you for me to see you? he asked curiously. Of course it bothers me, she snapped. Why? You are beautiful to my eyes. Her jaw dropped. She blinked rapidly for several moments, trying to think of an answer. Because. He got up slowly, lifting her gown and moving toward her. She would have retreated except that she could not seem to command her feet to move in any direction. He stopped less than an arm s length away and held out the dress. When Lilith reached for it, he reached for her, flicking one of the rings in her breasts with his finger. A wave of heat washed through her dizzyingly. Why do you wear this? Snatching the dress from him, she turned her back to him and shimmied into it. I do not know. I do not remember how it came to be there, but I could not take it out, she muttered shakily. There had been a thin chain, as well, strung through the rings, and through another ring lower, in her woman s place, connected at each end with a collar. She had no recollection at all of having gotten any of it, but she had found that she was reluctant to speculate on it. The rings had simply been there where before they had not. She had wakened naked in the woods with no recollection of having gotten there, her home destroyed. It took no great leap to imagine that the villagers who must have destroyed the cottage had done that to her also, but she could not think of a reason for it and she did not want to remember how, or why, or when they had done it to her. Feeling better once she was covered, she turned an irritated glance upon the LABYRINTH OF THE BEAST Desiree Acuna 80 Hawkin. It is not at all gentlemanly to stare at a lady in her bath, she muttered. He tilted his head, studying her with amusement. I am not a gentleman. I am a Hawkin. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |