“What is the meaning of this?” he snarls.
My lungs freeze, and my heart gives up entirely.
Oh heaven help me, what have I done?
Chapter twenty-eight
Ijump to my feet and face my furious husband. His eyes are wild, and he is breathing hard.
How do I explain this? How do I excuse that I told all of court that I was taking his brother to bed?
“Explain yourself!” Selwyn demands as he glares at me.
“That’s my cue to leave,” says Dyfri.
He rises from the settee and heads further into Selwyn’s rooms rather than towards the exit. Oh. The secret passageway. He is going to leave through there.
“Did you bed my consort?” Selwyn bellows after him.
Dyfri doesn’t turn around or slow his pace. “Do you think I would be so quick about it?”
“Dyfri Y Mhorriganogi!”
The dark-haired prince sighs and looks over his shoulder. “No, Brother dearest, I have not bedded your consort.”
And then he is gone. Slipped away into the shadows. Leaving me alone with Selwyn.
Reluctantly, I meet my husband’s gaze. There is a distraught look in his gold-flecked eyes, smouldering amongst the fury.
My stomach twists. I am pretty sure he believes his brother, but the rumours and gossip are going to cause him so much grief.
Fey don’t have fidelity in marriage, not for casual sex, but Dyfri is his brother and this rhocyn stuff no doubt complicates things. The fact I stole Dyfri away from that noble is probably all kinds of shocking.
“I’m… I’m so sorry,” I croak. “I was trying to help Dyfri. This horrible woman had him pinned and was going to make him do things and I…. I couldn’t bear it and I didn’t think.”
My gaze is firmly on the floor now, and the polished floorboards are beginning to look all blurry. The faint sound of Loki whimpering reaches my ears. I hope Peaony doesn’t let her out yet. She doesn’t need to witness all this unpleasantness.
“Don’t cry,” says Selwyn.
I sniff. “I’ll try not to.”
Selwyn exhales slowly. “Laurie, you are not in trouble.”
My head snaps up. That can’t be true.
My husband looks a lot calmer now, but he is clearly fighting for it. He steps towards me, and for some reason, I don’t flinch away.
“You were helping Dyfri?”
I nod wordlessly.
“You don’t…” he pauses and starts again. “You don’t wish you were wed to him instead of me?”
My jaw drops. What a shocking thought! I’m almost too astonished to speak.
“No. I like Dyfri, but not… like that.”
Selwyn is the only person I have ever liked like that. The only person who makes my stomach swoop with thattingling-fluttering-yearning sensation. I didn’t even know what desire felt like until I met him.
