Gart was right behind him.
CHAPTER FOUR
Emberley’s first awarenesswas of someone rolling her gently onto her back. She groaned in pain as her bruised and swollen body shifted, in particular the left side of her head. Julian had beaten her soundly about the head and shoulders and she had covered her face with her hands, trying to protect her mouth and nose. Consequently, her left ear was horribly swollen as was the entire left side of her head. Both hands were seriously battered from having defended herself.
Only half-conscious, she caught a glimpse of very large hands and she panicked. But the big hands grabbed her before she could move away.
“Easy, lady,” a very soft, very deep voice whispered. “You are safe. Everything will be all right.”
Emberley managed to open an eye, seeing Gart’s unfocused face in her field of vision. She thought she might have been dreaming. “Gart?” she whispered.
He smiled gently at her. “It is me.”
She was mildly incoherent, trying to push him away and get out of bed at the same time. “My children,” she mumbled. “I must get to my children.”
He gently, but firmly, eased her back onto the bed. “The children are fine,” he assured her softly. “They are being tended.”
Confused, she allowed him to push her back to the mattress simply because the pain in her head and neck was so great. It felt much better to lie down. “Where are they?”
“In the hall, eating their meal.”
She looked up at him as if not quite understanding him. The dark blue eyes were struggling to concentrate. “What… what are you doing here?”
“I am here to help you.”
It took her a moment to understand what he was telling her. As he watched, she burst into tears.
“Nay,” she sobbed softly. “Please go, Gart. If Julian finds you here, he will kill us both.”
Gart couldn’t help it. He reached up a big hand to stroke her head simply to comfort her, but she yelped with pain when he touched her. Concerned, he moved to get a better look at the left side of her head and he could see that nearly the entire side of her head and scalp was bloodied. It was matted in her beautiful hair and dried blood filled her ear canal. He sighed with dismay, struggling to keep his anger at bay. He had only just quelled it and it threatened to surge again.
“He will not find me here,” he said softly. “He is leaving for London. I have been given permission to remain behind to tend you.”
Tears ran down her temples as she gazed up at him. “Who gave you permission?”
“My liege,” Gart began to look around for water or anything else he could use to clean her up. She was a bloodied mess. “He has told your husband that I have already gone home. No one knows I am here.”
Emberley watched him as he moved over to a table near the window and peered into a big pewter pitcher. He sniffed it and, determining it was rosewater, poured it into the earthenware basin that was next to it.
“He will kill you if he finds you here,” she whispered. “Please go.”
He looked at her. “I am not going anywhere,” he said. “I am responsible for your misery. I must make amends.”
Emberley was in too much pain to argue. She closed her eyes as Gart went in search of a rag or something he could use with the water, coming across great squares of linen that were neatly folded in the giant wardrobe. He pulled out an armful, dropping half of them on the floor as he made his way back to the bed. It was a children’s room and the clean linen mingled with the clutter of toys and socks on the floor. He put the linen and the water next to the bed and took a knee.
Emberley felt him very gently begin to clean the blood from the left side of her head. She put up a bloodied hand and grasped his wrist, stopping him. Her dark blue eyes opened slowly and fixed on his intense green.
“Please,” she whispered. “I want you to go. I want you to leave and forget you ever saw me here.”
He gazed down at her, feeling something he couldn’t describe began to blossom in his chest. It was as if an unseen hand were squeezing his heart, hurting him. He’d never felt such a thing in his entire life.
“I will not,” he responded softly. “I will not leave and I will not forget you.”
Her eyes began to tear up again. “Please,” she begged softly. “Please go. I… I do not want you to see me like this. I do not want… you to remember me like this.”
He smiled gently and resumed cleaning the dried blood from her chin and jaw, completely ignoring her request.
“Do you want to know what I remember of you?” he asked her. “I remember a little girl that looked like an angel with her long, blond hair and big, blue eyes. I remember how she used to follow Erik around and he would scold her to stop following him,but then she would pout and he would relent and let her come along with whatever he was doing. He could not refuse such a sweet little face.”
