Kenna’s sharp cry was muffled against Rhys’s damp shoulder. She opened her eyes, blinking several times to clear them. “Dear God,” she said hoarsely. “Oh, Rhys, it was awful.”
“Shh! It’s over. It was the dream, nothing more.”
She nodded. “I’m sorry I woke you. Did I scream?”
“Only at the end, just before you woke. Do you want to talk about it?”
“I think I must. Mayhap I can put it straight in my mind.”
“Here. Lie down.” Rhys shifted so Kenna could lie back. He stretched out at her side and propped himself on an elbow. Her nightgown had rucked up about her thighs and Rhys smoothed it, then tucked a blanket about both of them. “Better?”
“Mm. I can hardly think how to begin.”
“Wherever you like.” He reached for her hand and squeezed it for assurance.
Kenna smiled faintly. “It began differently this time. I was in the gallery.”
“What were you doing there?”
“In most of the dreams I am waiting for Yvonne. She is still at the masque, you see, and I hide in there until there is an opportunity to get her out of the ballroom. Only this time it was different. I wasn’t dressed as a highwayman, but as Cleopatra, and I was waiting for you, not my sister. The Cleopatra disguise is easy enough to explain. It’s how I intended to dress before I coerced Yvonne into the tower room. Neither of us was permitted to attend the masque after that.”
“Understandable. But when you decided to disobey your father, you didn’t wear Cleo. When we found you in the cavern you had on the highwayman guise.”
“Yes, I know.” She hesitated, trying to find the words to explain what she thought had happened in her dream. “It is all very confusing, I know, but I wasn’t thirteen when the dream began. I think I was dressed as Cleopatra because I wanted to…to seduce you.”
“I see,” Rhys said slowly, the glimmer of a smile quivered on his lips. “And did you?”
“I think I started to,” she answered seriously. “You didn’t like the wig. You said my hair was too dark.” Self-consciously she touched her burnished curls. “This color must bother me more than I thought.”
Rhys was fascinated by the blend of reality and unreality in her dream though he didn’t have any clue as to what it meant or why it existed. “What happened then?”
“We kissed.”
“Ah,” he said wisely. “Then the wig did not concern me overmuch.”
Kenna gave his hand a little shake in reproof. “I was holding onto you very tightly. It was as if you were carved from stone. And then, without warning, youwerestone, and I found myself in the cave. I wanted the dream to end then, for something told me it was a dream this time. But knowing did not help. I could not back away from the antechamber entrance. It was as if some force compelled me to go through the sequence of events again.”
Rhys heard a certain breathlessness enter her voice and she was beginning to rush her words. “Slowly, Kenna. Go through it with me now, but slowly. You can stop any time you wish. I won’t force you.”
Kenna felt her palms begin to sweat. “I was crouched against the wall, listening to the argument that was going on in the chamber. The two men from the boat…” She stopped. “You know about the boat, don’t you?”
“Yes. Nick told me that you swore a ship signaled from the channel and a pair of men rowed up on the beach.”
“That’s right. Their backs were to me and they partially hid you. I mean the man I thought was you,” she corrected quickly. “But I could see Victorine clearly enough. She was arguing with the Frenchmen, or perhaps pleading with them would explain it better.”
“Are you certain they were French?”
“As certain as I am about anything else, which is to say everything is open for interpretation.”
“Go on.”
“My father came then. Rhys, I never saw it happen this way before, but I swear my father walked through the chamber wall. I know it is too much to be believed but that’s what seemed to happen.” She laughed uneasily. “Why am I telling you this? It sounds more incredible when I hear it aloud.”
“Never mind,” he said. “Tell me what happened next.”
Kenna was slightly taken aback by the tenor of seriousness in Rhys’s voice. Even she did not credit her own memory on this count, yet Rhys was hanging on every word. “Well, he stepped into the chamber and the gap in the rock behind him simply disappeared. He ordered Victorine to come to his side and chastised her for putting any credence in the plans of her escort or those of the Frenchmen. I was frightened for my father then. The Frenchmen were agitated and Victorine was sobbing. I edged toward the entranceway, thinking that disguised as I was, I could help my father.”
“But he recognized you, didn’t he?”
