More tears leaked from my eyes.
Roman brushed my hair back with his palm. “You had no choice. We both knew that. It was stay and risk both of us being killed or entranced by him, or take a chance and believe him. I don’t blame you one bit. I would have done the same thing. I would have loathed each second we were apart, but I would have left you.”
“Oh, God, how I ached for you. I couldn’t find you in my heart. I worried that he’d killed you.” I clutched Roman’s hand to my cheek.
“Shh, sweetheart. I’m here. And Balthazar has no way to find us. He left the dagger on the floor of my prison cell. The man who rescued me brought it with us.” The sweetest smile crossed his lips. He lowered his hand to caress my belly. “So, we are to have a baby, Olivia. I’m overjoyed. I will do everything to protect the child. It is such a gift. We will protect it. It is our duty.”
His eyes glistened as he spoke.
I kissed his palm, overcome with emotion.
“And, we must get married immediately,” he said.
When I opened my mouth to protest, he cut me off.
“I’m not marrying you because you’re with a child. I simply must marry you. I realized how precious you are to me in that pit of a hellhole I was in. I can’t live another moment without knowing we will be wed at once. There will always be problems to face. I want to face them together as lawfully wedded husband and wife.”
His gaze was so intense I could feel my soul stirring.
I didn’t know how I would have reacted in my twenty-first-century reality. Still, at this moment, in this century, I was in a state of one-hundred-percent agreement. “Yes, Roman! Let’s do it!”
We simply smiled at one another like two goofy lovesick teenagers.
Then, shadows fell across his face.
“What is it?” I said, my stomach tying itself into knots of alarm.
“It’s nothing,” he said, withdrawing from me.
“Don’t say it’s nothing. I can feel you drawing into yourself. It’s what you experienced with Balthazar, isn’t it?” My stomach clenched around my certainty.
Roman glanced away from me, letting me know I was right.
“Tell me, Roman. Tell me what he did to you. You said you want to marry me, so we can share our trials, tribulations, and joys. Please share with me.” I ran my palm over his forehead and down his cheek.
His jaw set into a firm, unyielding block of stone.
I waited for him to speak.
He rolled onto his back, and it felt like he was moving miles away from me.
I placed my hand on his arm for comfort and connection.
Finally, his gaze fixed on the hole in the center of the teepee, he spoke in a vacant-sounding voice as if he were back in that horrible dungeon. “I was in the bowels of hell—a windowless, lightless place. I never knew whether it was day or night. And I was sick…so sick, burning with fever. At times I saw monsters creeping around my prone form. I still can’t say if they were real or imagined. They seemed so alive.”
I stayed very still, allowing him space to share.
“I had to fight with the rats for the meager offerings tossed into the chamber as if I were a dog. Sometimes I won. Sometimes the rats won.”
My breath came in ragged bursts as I struggled to contain my tears.
“And when I was the victor, it was often not worth the energy I’d just exerted. The bread tossed to me was often mildewed and unfit for consumption. I willingly shared with the rats when I got bread like that, hoping it would kill them.
“And Balthazar…” Roman’s voice sounded like pebbles falling over a pool of terror. “He would enter and torture me…slice me with knives or stomp on my broken ankle. I’m still not certain if I’ll ever walk again.”
“Marcellious set it for you with Leaping Deer’s guidance,” I said.
Roman frowned. “I experienced excruciating pain. I thought I was having another nightmare. But now I sense it’s healing.”
