Page 54 of Her Dark Seduction
“Sleeping. I suggest you do the same. We rise with the sun.”
Sickened at the feelings I had begun to experience for Sawford, I huddled under my blanket; but the image of Percy’s face still haunted me and sleep eluded me for a long time.
When I woke, the fire had gone out, and a thin film of mist hung in the air. The sun struggled to pierce the clouds. I prayed it would not rain.
I sat up, stiff, sore, and tired from lack of sleep. As soon as I moved, a piece of meat was dropped on the ground before me.
“The last of the food. Eat it quickly.”
I nibbled at the meat, grateful for something to ease my grumbling stomach. The sickness from being with child had passed but would return if I went too long without eating. I swallowed the meat, and a wave of nausea struck me. Leaning forward, I took a deep breath until it subsided.
A gentle hand touched my shoulder, and the waterskin was pushed into my hand.
“Drink,” he said quietly, “it will make you feel better.”
I snatched it from him ,and he sighed before sitting beside me, tearing at the joint of meat in his hand with his teeth like a man starved. His face looked thin and his features had changed from the softness I had seen in repose the day before. The hard, shuttered expression had returned. The fragile bond between us had been broken, and the wall had regained its height.
“Might I ask where we are going—husband?”
He appeared not to hear me and sat chewing thoughtfully before he sighed and tossed the bone into the ashes of the fire.
“We go to stay with my brother and his wife. With luck we should arrive before the onset of winter.”
“You have a brother?”
“I had two.”
“Had?”
“My youngest brother is dead.”
“I am sorry. How did he die?”
“Over a woman,” Sawford replied. “You make fools of us all. Ask me no more. We leave now.”
He’d not spoken of his family before, but his clipped speech and angry gaze prevented me from voicing my curiosity, and we spent the day in silence. As the sun broke through the clouds, we rested beside a stream where I washed my face and filled the waterskins. Our food had run out and Sawford was unable to catch anything to eat. I dared not ask how soon our journey would end.
