She leaned forward. “I understand that you are going back to Wales and I cannot follow you. What has changed is that I have decided to take what I can get in the meantime, rather than live with regrets over chances missed.” She narrowed her eyes. “Unless you tell me that you are not interested. Then I will leave you in peace.”
He chuckled, albeit weakly. “You would ask me to lie to a truth-caster?”
“I never know what you are thinking,” she complained. “I thought, after that night at the coaching inn, that you despised me.”
“Despisedyou? Despised myself, rather, and all the reasons why it was impossible for anything to happen between Lady Frederica Fitzwilliam and simple Roderick ap Rhodri.”
“Not so simple, as I understand it.” Granny had told her about Roderick’s illustrious forebears. “And it seems the problem lies more in your desire to keep your Welsh village a secret than in my birth.”
He sighed. “Would you have me expose my family and friends, and force the dragons who live among us into hiding, all for the sake of my own desires?”
“No,” she said crossly. “But I do wish you would tell me what you are keeping from me.”
He groaned. “May God protect me from truth-casters!” But he did not meet her eyes.
She waited as he fidgeted.
His shoulders slumped. “You are taking advantage of my weakness, but so be it. I have the King’s Bond to the land.”
It hit her like a shock. The King’s Bond, far beyond a simple land Talent, an ability that ranged wide and permitted the monarch to use the land itself in its own defense. No British rulers since Queen Elizabeth had carried the King’s Bond.
She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. “How far is your reach?”
His expression was self-deprecating, of course. “Much of northern Wales, except the far eastern part.”
Good God. If the government had any clue, they would execute Roderick, and his every relation along with him.
“And you are a powerful mage on top of that, and now a dragon companion as well.”
His eyes met hers. “Now you see why I cannot afford to draw the attention of English society by attaching myself to one of their well-known aristocrats.”
The problem was that she did see. And it broke her heart. She raised her chin. “Then I will learn to be glad of the little time I have with you.”
His eyes softened. “Though we may need to wait until I am strong enough to, say, sit up on my own.”
She gave him an arch look. “For some things, perhaps.” And then she stood to lean over the bed – and claimed his lips with her own.
At last.
Chapter 33
Elizabeth had slept fitfullybetween the demands of her growing body and the occasional twig poking through the blanket, despite Darcy’s best efforts to make a soft area of dried leaves for them behind a boulder that would hide them from any passersby. But she had been curled up in his arms all night, and that more than made up for it.
Darcy kissed her lingeringly, sending a rush of heat through her. “Rest here while I fetch some water,” he said.
“Thank you.” She would be happy to rest for hours, if only she could. To think they might be back at Pemberley in just a day or two, in their own bed! Where she could stay in that bed all day and night if she wished. It sounded like heaven. They had left the road earlier than planned the previous day, after their encounter with the soldiers, and the terrain had been rough and challenging. Her legs ached from carrying the extra weight of her heavy belly as she clambered up the steep slope, but it was worth it to get away from the soldiers.
She pulled the blanket up to her chin, watching Darcy pick up his coat with his left hand. He sighed and set it down again. His new limitations must frustrate him every day.
Pushing the cover aside, she rose from their makeshift bed and took the coat. Bending down was getting harder every day. “Pray permit me to assist you.”
He grimaced, but allowed her to slide it over his weak arm. No wonder he was wearing looser clothes now; he could never have managed it with one of his usual tight coats. That must be why he had slept in his boots, too, to avoid having to ask her to help him with them.
What a blow this must be to him!
She could think of no words to make it better, but he was still her beloved William, so she caught his face between her hands and kissed him with every ounce of persuasive passion she had, tantalizing him to deepen the kiss until they were both breathing heavily.
Finally, when she broke away, he leaned his forehead against hers. “Oh, my dearest Elizabeth. When we are back at Pemberley, I am not letting you out of bed for a week.”
