“Chains?” Kristen shouted as she paced back and forth beside the bed. “I cannot believe you would do that! And for what? She is not going anywhere.”
“That is a certainty now!” he replied just asloudly in his defense, though he winced in the doing.
Kristen didn’t notice the pain so much noise was causing him. She continued to make more. “Damn it, Selig, you know how I feel about them!”
“What I know is that anytime you are angry at Royce, you come to take it out on me,” he complained. “Mayhap you could spare me this time, Kris.”
“This has naught to do with that great lout,” she insisted. “Why could you not wait until you take her to your home, so I would not have to know?”
“I do not intend to lose her because of your prejudice. If you had not been made to wear chains yourself, you would not object so strenuously to them now.”
“But I did, and I do. If you are so worried about it, lock her up. But get rid—”
“The chains stay.”
“Selig!”
“Give it up,” he said adamantly. “My mind cannot be changed on this.”
She let out an explosive, frustrated breath. “I wish I could hit you!”
Without heat now, seriously, he replied, “I wish you could, too.”
Her demeanor changed abruptly, contritely. She bent over him, her hands to his cheeks, her brow to his brow. “I am sorry.”
“I know,” he said simply. “Now sit down. You have made me dizzy with all that pacing.”
“Very funny.” She resumed her pacing. “Very funny indeed.”
His brows shot up at her sarcastic tone, which led him to make a guess. “So you did not win the argument last night?”
A curt shake of her head and a grimace. He would have laughed if he didn’t think she would hit him despite her resolve not to. It was not the first time Royce had taken a hand to Kristen’s backside. And she always made him suffer for it for weeks after.
“You should forgive him,” he suggested. “Father would have done the same thing to you.”
“Oh, shut up.” Her voice was rising again. “I rescue you, and evenyoutake their side.”
“Truth be known, Kris, you were not necessary to my release. I will forever be grateful that you came when I needed you, but Royce could have managed it just as easily.”
“Did I know that?” She was back to yelling, and he was back to wincing from it. “But I will tell you what I do know. If you had not got it into your head to go off on a lark, helping a king you are not even sworn to, none of this would have happened.”
“Now, that is unfair, damn it. You were in agreement on my going.”
“More fool I—”
“Your shouting is causing him pain, Lady Kristen.”
They both looked toward Erika with varying degrees of disbelief. Theirs could not equalher own, though. She turned toward the wall to hide a face that must be cherry-red. How had those words escaped her mouth? She had only been thinking them. And besides, it was nothing to her if he was in pain again.
Kristen cleared her throat, glancing guiltily at Selig. “How bad is it?”
He did not answer for a moment. He was still staring in bemusement at Erika’s stiff back. Loki take her, how did she dare to speak on his behalf?
“Selig?”
“’Tis always worse in the morn,” he said absently.
“Is it getting no better?”
