Page 6 of Dangerous Exile

Which told him he needed to get out of that room posthaste, as Ness had already wasted too much of his night.

Talen shifted her body gently away from his chest and pulled his left leg from the side of her, then laid her body back onto the bed.

Taking care to not disturb her left arm too much, he tucked the coverlet up and over her chest and atop her toes.

Poor pup indeed.

Madame Juliet better have a good reason for all of this nonsense.

{ Chapter 3 }

Talen entered the Blue Waters room two days later, determined to get answers where Madame Juliet had sent him none.

He’d been expecting a message, a note from Juliet, which he’d gotten—but it had been short and raised more questions than given answers. Namely, who exactly was this woman Juliet had sent to him?

Time to get the answers he needed from the most likely source.

He closed the door of the Blue Waters room with a loud snap and Ness stirred, her one good eye blinking hazily until she realized someone else was in the room with her.

She rolled onto her right side, trying to push herself to sitting, but her arms were heavy, her head bobbing in a slow circle, her focus out of her right eye blurry.

Good. She was still deep in the fog of the laudanum he’d had Declan carefully administer to her throughout the last two days. It’d been necessary. Necessary for her pain, aside from the fact that the last thing he’d needed was a caterwauling woman in pain a floor above the Midas Room—where the highest stakes were won and lost.

At her movement in the bed, his hand lifted. “No, Ness, do not sit up. It is too much for you.”

She collapsed downward, sinking into the bed, gratitude in the exhale seeping past her lips that were now less swollen. Her right eye focused on him and the plump bruise about her left eye had finally eased enough so he could see a sliver of that eye.

Her mouth parted, words croaking past her lips. “You are Talen Blackstone?”

How many times was he going to have to answer that question from her?

Talen veered, moving to the tea pot beside the bed. He poured a shallow cup for her, then moved to the bed, holding it to her lips. Drips of it snaked into her mouth until she pulled away.

Setting the cup on the bedside table, Talen moved to stand beside the bed, his fingers tapping on the light blue coverlet that hung over the edge of the mattress as he looked down at her. “Aye. I am Talen Blackstone and I have some questions for you.”

Her right eye, still unfocused, drifted up the front of his body to land on his face. “What?”

“Who sent you?”

“Juliet. Juliet Thomson.” The name was drawn out, her voice drifting from high to low. Damn the laudanum still in her brain.

He nodded. “I understand she went north with a Scotsman. You met her there?”

“I did.”

“Why did she send you to me?”

“I need help.”

“And she thought I would help you?”

For the slightest second, her right eye seemed to focus on him directly. “You’re the only one that can protect me.”

Doubtful.

Sending the slip of a chit like this deep into the heart of the rookeries was far more dangerous than the hundred other places Juliet could have sent her. But Juliet had sent Ness to him. Which meant that the danger lurking about the woman was significant.

Danger he wasn’t sure he wanted to invite into his life at the moment.

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