-=[~]=-
She was awake all at once, but she
didn't dare move.
Her eyes were wide open, taking in the
unfamiliar surroundings with growing trepidation. She still did not
move.
What was wrong here?
The deep red of the velvet bed curtains
above her was disconcerting. She was warm and deep in plush softness.
Where was the dank cold of her cell? She strained, but there was only
a deep silence to hear.
Where was the lonely drip of stale
water into a small puddle echoing down the stone corridor?
Her limbs were frozen in place, strewn
about her as they had been in sleep. Only now she was awake, and she
dared not move.
Where was she?
A sound beside her made her throat
clench tight. She held her breath.
It had sounded like a deep sigh. She
strained her eyes as far to the side as possible without moving her
head. She could barely make out a lump beside her, a little bit away
from her. The lump sighed again and shifted.
A slight snore.
Her stomach dropped through the bed and
hit the floor.
The Duke!
Her stomach shot back into her body and
dislodged her heart thudding frantically in her chest. She felt bile
burning in the back of her throat.
Her husband.
In an instant, the previous night came
back to her and she shut her eyes against the onslaught of images. It
was no use, though. They were even more vivid against the backs of
her eyelids, so she opened them wide again.
With the memories came the lingering
soreness. She ached from head to toe. Her backside burned. She
suddenly could not quite catch her breath but didn't dare so much as
gasp.
She didn't want to wake him.
Let him sleep, she
thought. Let him sleep and never wake. Like Brennan von Aikken
when he slept a hundred years upon the knoll. Let him sleep a hundred
years and wake to find me dead.
Fate would not be so kind, she knew.
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