She looked up, ready to see admonishment in his eyes, but instead she found understanding yet again.
He sighed, flashing the briefest and most wan smile she’d ever seen, and nodded. ‘You know even before it begins how it will end. You owe nothing, you are owed nothing. You can pass through life as though not even a part of it.’
‘Yes.’
It should have hurt her, those words, that vicious and cold truth laid bare, a truth she’d known somewhere in the depths of her heart but always refused to recognise. Only, it didn’t. It made her feel...
Less alone. But then, here, with him, with the others, you never feel alone anymore.
‘Why do you call him your prince? The man...’
‘I don’t know.’ Rebecca frowned. ‘I suppose... It takes some of the fear away. Takes his power away. For if he is only a prince in a fairy story...’
‘What harm could he do you?’
Rebecca nodded.
‘You truly are a spectacularly unconventional woman, Miss Merrickson,’ Liam said.
‘And it is getting spectacularly late, my lord,’ she replied huskily after a moment.
His eyes seemed only to hold admiration as they remained affixed to her own.
And light, a magnetic light...
Which threatened to thoroughly undo her should he gaze at her like that any longer.
‘I have talked quite enough of myself, and I think perhaps you wish to retire.’
‘Indeed. You are not yet fully recovered,’ he conceded, rising, a sad smile lingering at the corners of his lips. ‘I have interrogated you enough for one evening. I shall let you rest.’
‘I think perhaps, my lord, you should not trouble yourself so much. I am feeling much better, and I think it shall not be long before I’m back on my feet again.’
‘Indeed.’ Liam nodded, as acutely aware as she was of the danger more time together might bring. ‘Goodnight, Miss Merrickson.’
‘Goodnight, my lord.’
Liam bowed and left, though his scent—indeed his very presence—lingered in her room, just as the man lingered in her mind, despite all her attempts to rid herself of him.
For, try as she might, she could not. She had hoped at least to lessen his opinion of her, to force him to leave her be, in peace. That was why she’d told him all the sordid details of her life, wasn’t it? To discourage his attentions? Why should she even have to? There was nothingtohis attentions. He was being attentive, caring, because she was his responsibility. A good master takes care of his servants. True, he had been moreinvolvedthan most—than any, really—but then... He knew of such things because of his life in those wilds. And the house was isolated, so who else could tend to her?
Literally anyone...
No. The others had their duties, so he was simply being considerate to everyone by tending to her himself. By reading to her for hours, and soothing her fever with cool cloths, and... By looking at her with those eyes...
Instead of pushing him away, it felt as if he’d drawn closer. Not only had he not found her truths repellent, but he seemed to understand her.
No.
He had saved her life. And she was grateful. And he was undeniably an attractive man. So, these tender feelings were normal. They had been forced together too closely, and she owed him her life.
It would all be right again when everything returned to normal.
Chapter Fourteen
‘You have recovered, then?’ Liam asked as Rebecca laid down a tray of coffee on his desk.
Apart from the New Year, when they had all gathered in the hall to hear the chiming of midnight, and raise a glass of sweet wine, she hadn’t been allowed from her rooms. Even then, she’d had Gregory, Sam or Tim at her arm every second of those blessed twenty minutes of freedom.
