She was beginning to doubt she could ever wind it together again.
“But you didn’t listen to your brother.” He had a point to make, and he hadn’t yet made it.
She braced herself. “No.”
“When Dido died, you didn’t take it as a lesson to close yourself off. You went the opposite way. You opened an animal sanctuary. In allowing yourself to lead with your heart, you’vebeen able to do good.” His gaze lost none of its intensity. “I admire that about you.”
Even if she’d had words, she wouldn’t have been able to speak them, stunned as she was.
Bran shifted in his chair, and a wince passed across his features.
“You’re in pain.”
She didn’t need to ask.
“I’ve just been sitting for too long,” he said, in that dismissive way of his.
She sprang to her feet. “Would a hot bath help?”
“Artemis, there is no need.”
But his protest fell on deaf ears.
She knew two things.
He was in pain.
And a hot bath would help.
“It’s ten o’clock at night,” he pointed out, trying a different angle.
Her hand was already wrapped around the door handle. “I’ll compensate the servants,” she tossed over her shoulder before exiting the room.
Her footsteps, a swiftclick-clackacross the floorboards of the corridor, found their first steady ground of the night as she set to her task.
The fact was she wouldn’t be stopped.
This was about him, and this was about her.
And, possibly, this was aboutthem.
Of a sudden, the ground beneath her feet felt less certain.
Once, there had been athem.
And it had led to utter disaster and near ruin.
She shook the thought away
She was in no danger tonight.
Surely, she’d learned her lesson, hadn’t she?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
AN HOUR LATER
As Bran sank deeper into the copper tub, steam rising off the surface of the water, sweat beading down the side of his face, he understood one thing.
