Chapter 23
Feeling torn, he dismissed her. “That’s all for now. I’m tired and hungry and don’t care for how this morning has gone.” He sounded petulant even to his own ears, but he didn’t care right now.
“Uhm.” She collected his bowl of breakfast and sat down in the chair that was still situated next to his bed. She was doing that infuriating habit of hers where she bit her bottom lip.
He watched as she sucked it into her mouth and nibbled. “Dear Goddess, are you tempting me?”
“I wanted to say, again, how sorry I am for-”
“It’s fine.” He interrupted her. He knew what she meant to apologize for, and he couldn’t stomach another apology. How could she not see that it was the other way around? It was he who needed to apologize to her, not her to him. “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
He felt his frown appear, but he couldn’t stop it. The subject left him with a sour taste in his mouth.
She held out the spoon and fed him his breakfast of oats over milk with a small pouch of strawberries before she mentioned something about going to the Market and getting proper medicine, but he didn’t have the heart to fully pay attention to what she was saying.
His mind was on David and the dangers that might lurk in his castle. What had happened since his accident? Who was in his home? Was Bea safe when she slept? However far away that was from him.
She was getting up to leave when he said abruptly, “I want you to move into my rooms.”
“What?” That was all she said. Her eyes had grown large and were peering down at him in confusion.
So, he repeated himself. “I have a room attached to mine just in case I needed a private servant. You’ll find it comfortable. I want you to move into my rooms with me. Closer. So, moving forward, I’ll know where you are.”
Her expression grew sad. A small frown formed, and her brow turned down, but she simply said, “As you wish.” And then she turned and left the room.
Why was she sad? The thought of her face lingered in his mind.
Why do I care? She was nothing more than a slave pretending to be his wife. He’d named her as such himself, yet she couldn’t NOT be a slave. For that was what she was.
He remembered her standing up to David and her shocked expression when she saw his cut. How she fought for him, battled for him really: As she should! The thought slid in, unbidden.
t, the hours of her absence started to weigh on him. Not only was she not in his room, but she was also not in his castle. If he needed something, who was he to call for? What if she fell and hurt herself because she was carrying too much, and now, she was stuck and injured? Did she have help? Did she go alone?
He hated how he tormented himself over the unknown, and so he focused on the known.
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Chapter 23
He was awake, present. He was slowly gaining control over his limbs and body. Even if those limbs were nothing like they used to be. In his mind, they were weak, feeble, and broken. No longer did he feel powerful and strong. He chided his form, which was no better than a mewling child in his mind.
Once a man of significance and power, now a traitor to his Kingdom and a subject of mockery and ridicule. Truly, a mass of meat, thrown over a railing by a slave.
And who should he find at his side in his darkest hour? A beautiful girl who saved his life only to be beaten,
burned, and discarded.
He would force himself to become strong again, even if it killed him. He would be a force to be reckoned with, and
he swore right then and there that he would get to the bottom of what happened at the cottage, and he would slaughter whoever it was that dared to cross him, his father, and now, his wife. 2
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