“Why?”
“I am done with answering questions, milord.” She sighed. “I am tired.”
“Then go to sleep.”
“You want me to stay here with you?”
He would not speak the words, but pulling her back down on the bed was answer enough. She had not expected it.
She turned her head toward him as his arm slipped across her waist to draw her closer. “You have a wall of weapons here. You do not fear I will kill you while you sleep?”
“Would you?”
“Nay, but I could escape,” she said. “You have not locked your door.”
He chuckled. “If that were your plan, then you would not bring it to my attention. Rest easy, Kristen. I have not lost my mind. I have a man on guard in the hall.”
She gasped. “You knew all along you would make love to me!”
“Nay, but I planned for all the possibilities. Now be quiet if ’tis sleep you want.”
She clamped her mouth shut, feeling chagrined. But not for long. He wanted her to spend the night with him. He had used her well, yet still he wanted her near. That thought made her feel very good indeed, so good that she fell asleep with a smile on her lips, and Royce’s arm still holding her close.
Chapter Nineteen
Kristen watched Royce while he slept. It was a luxury to lie there and do so, for she should have risen already. Eda usually woke her much earlier than this. The older woman would already be working below. And Kristen was not so naive as to think that just because she had shared the lord’s bed, she would not have to work anymore.
She sighed, hating to leave him, but she wanted to fetch her clothes from the bathing room before more than just the servants were about in the hall. She slipped off the bed and quickly put on the coarse gray robe. She picked up the green gown from the floor and held it to her cheek for a moment. Then she sighed again and laid it carefully over Royce’s coffer.
She knew he would not let her wear her own gowns. They had made love and likely would again, but it didn’t mean the same thing to him that it did to her. To him she was still just a slave, and slaves were not adorned in finery.
“Kristen?”
She turned with her hand on the door to see she had woken him somehow. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, hair tousled, as naked as he had been last night, and looking sleepy. In fact he yawned.
Kristen couldn’t help the tender smile that came to her lips. “Aye, milord?”
“You would have left without waking me?”
“I did not think you would want to rise this early,” she replied.
“Come here.”
She hesitated, but only for a moment. If he wanted to make love again, she could find no objection. She could not think of a more pleasant way to start the day.
When she stood before him, he reached for her hands and held them lightly in his. It was not desire she read in his eyes as he looked up at her.
“Where were you going?”
“Below to work.”
“Then you have forgotten something.”
“Nay, I—”
She stopped, her eyes widening, for he could mean only one thing. And he saw that she comprehended now.
“Put them on, Kristen.”
