Chapter 12: She Asked

I slept for four hours, with the summons under my pillow.

Tomorrow the king would ask my husband whether he had stolen from the army, and Edmund would be sitting in the room.

I got up, put on my nightgown and went down the dark corridor to his door, because I would not let him face that alone tonight.

I did not knock.

I stood with my hand flat on the wood and listened to him walking up and down inside.

Then I knocked.

The walking stopped.

The door opened, and he was in his shirtsleeves, with his collar undone and his bandaged hand held against his side.

He did not say anything.

"I have slept," I said.

"I see that."

"You told me to ask you again."

"I did." His voice was rough. "The second term. One year of separate rooms."

"That is the rule."

"That is the rule," said Alaric.

"Then I am asking you to break it."

He looked at me for the length of a breath.

Then he stepped back, and I walked past him into his room, and he closed the door.

There was one candle, and the bed was turned down.

He had not been to it.

"Linnet," he said behind me. "You have a month of reasons to be careful. I would rather you were sure."

"I am sure."

"You may change your mind."

"I might," I said, turning. "If you talk for much longer."

The corner of his mouth moved.

It moved again, and he crossed the room in three steps and put his good hand on my waist.

He kissed me slowly.

It was the slowest he had ever kissed me, and it undid me completely.

I put my hands in his hair.

His mouth moved to my jaw, and then to my throat.

Every place he touched woke up, one at a time.

"Tell me what you like," he said against my skin.

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