Page 121 of The Tsarina's Favorite
XXXV.
Someone moaned.
All was darkness.Had someone put a hood back on me?If they bound my hands behind my back again, that would explain why my back and shoulders ached so much.
But hadn’t I died?Out in the snow, saving Alaina.I had frozen to death.But surely, death should be less painful.
I hoped Alaina was safe.
Someone moaned again.
“Great Holy,” came a breathless whisper.“You’re awake.”
Clearly, they meant someone other than me because I was dead.And I couldn’t be awake when I was dead, could I?
I managed to say, although it came out raspy and hesitant, “Someone is in pain.”
“Yes,” said my unseen companion, her voice stronger now.“That someone is you.”
“I’m dead,” I told her, still half-certain that I was.
“No, but you gave it a good effort.”Fingertips, warm and gentle, touched a place on my collarbone.“I thought I lost you several times.”
“I’ll try harder next time then.”
“There better never be a next time,” she scolded me in that commanding tone.“I’ve barely slept for worry.”
“I told you to leave me, princess.”
“And I told you that I wouldn’t.Are you thirsty?”
I nodded.Or I thought I nodded.I couldn’t tell with my head throbbing.
Something hard and cold met my bottom lip.Then it tilted upward.Water flowed slowly and in spurts as the rim seesawed.I licked my lower lip when the cup withdrew.I couldn’t remember the last time I had drunk from a cup.
“Are we safe?”I asked.“Are you well?”
“We are safe and I am well, all because of you.”
“Have I been rendered blind by the cold?”My question came out more bravely than I thought it would.Although I had become accustomed to the hood and the sightlessness it inflicted, light still peeked around the fastenings.And yet, now, no light had greeted me.If that had been the price I had to pay, although a hefty one, then so be it.
She did not respond.I registered her intense stillness more than anything else.
“I befriended you sight unseen,” I reminded her.“I can live with that if you promise still to talk to me occasionally.”
“It’s not that,” she said.“I mean, I don’t think so anyway.You’ve been in and out of fever for so long that you’ll have to tell me if anything else is amiss.I have few candles lit and you’re bandaged, which is likely why all is darkness to you.”
Bandages implied injury, but I could live with injury.
“I had to shave your face for the physician.I didn’t do a very good job.”Her fingers stroked my right cheek.“You have dreadfully uneven stubble now.”
