“You did?”
“Aye.”She placed the broken pieces on the table.“When I came in, Peris was addin’ a deadly amount of opium to your wine.”
“What?”Hew glowered in outrage.“Did he mean to poison me?”
“I’m not sure.It may have been an accident.But I couldn’t let ye drink it.”
“Did you knock the cup out of his hand?”
“I did.”
His mouth curved slowly up into a heart-melting, delicious, conspiratorial smile.And she found there was something liberating about not having to keep up appearances for Sir Hew.Something thrilling about sharing her mischief with him.So she couldn’t help but grin back.
Lady Carenza’s charming innocence was going to get her into trouble.The lovely lass had no idea how her smile lit up a room, plucked heartstrings, and made a man grow hard with longing.
Hew felt that way now.
Sometime last night, she’d bathed and dressed.Aside from the garish wine stain marring her skirts, she looked flawless.The color of her gown matched the jewels of her eyes.Every strand of hair framed her face perfectly.Every inch of her skin was radiant.She smelled like a field of summer flowers.
He longed to court her with pretty phrases and gentle caresses.To whisper praise into her ear and slip the silky strands of her hair between his fingers.To sweep her into his arms—his burns be damned—and cradle her winsome body against his chest.
But his careless vow of chastity kept him in a prison of his own making.He would have to avert his eyes and temper his desires.
“How are ye feelin’?”she asked.“Any better?”
He nodded.His arms still stung.His hand burned.But the pain seemed negligible when compared to the throbbing in his braies.
“I need to change your poultice,” she said.
He nodded.That was what he needed.Pain to distract him from lust.
Her fingers were surprisingly gentle as she unwrapped the linen bandage.She winced more than he did when exposing the greasy, blistered palm of his hand.But it appeared to be no worse than before.
“Perhaps ’twill hurt less if ye do this yourself,” she said, offering him a clean rag to wipe away the old balm.“Take care not to burst the blisters.”
After he was done, she dabbed a honey-butter mixture over his clean skin with a feather-light touch.Then she tenderly swaddled his hand in fresh linen.
Someone came to the door to deliver a bottle of wine.He watched as Carenza poured out a cup and carefully added three drops of the tincture.
Then he frowned.
What if Peris’s measurements hadn’t been an error?What if he meant to do Hew harm?Hew had made the man nervous with the questions about his monastery visits.At the time, he’d assumed it was because the physician was unused to being interrogated by a warrior.But perhaps it was something more.
“Do you think Peris is hiding something?”
“Hidin’ somethin’?”she said, swirling the cup of wine.“Hidin’ what?”
He shook his head.“He’s been acting uneasy ever since I questioned him that first day.”
She considered this for a moment and then asked, “Whydidye question him?”
He couldn’t tell her the truth.At least not all of it.“I…wanted to know what he does at the monastery.How often he goes.What kind of access he has.”
“Why?”
“Why?”he echoed.
He couldn’t divulge details about his investigation.So he had to invent something.Fast.Not an easy feat when one was indulging in regular doses of opium wine.
