Chapter 15: Three Days

Ronan lowered the lamp and said, "Good morning."

That was all he said about the healer.

He went out to the yard and chopped wood until the sun was fully up.

He chopped it with his coat off, and he did not look at the house once.

I knew because I watched him from the window for a long while.

Over the next three days, every one of them kept the rule.

Corin passed me the salt with a spoon.

Nolan walked the long way around the table so he would never brush my chair.

Ronan kept both hands behind his back whenever I was within a yard of him.

On the third morning I rode down to the Moonmill to check the flour stock, and he rode behind me as my guard.

"Stay in the yard," I said at the door.

"As you say."

The loft was up a steep ladder at the back of the mill, and the grain there was stacked higher than my head.

I climbed with my skirt knotted at my knee.

On the ninth rung my boot slid on a patch of flour, and the rung went out from under me.

A hand caught me by the waist and held me against the ladder.

It was a big hand, and it was hot through my shirt.

I turned my head, and Ronan was right behind me, with his chest against my back.

"I told you to stay in the yard," I said.

"I heard you fall."

"I didn't fall."

"You were falling."

He did not let go, and he did not move his hand.

I felt him breathing hard against my hair.

"You touched me without asking," I said.

"I know."

"Three days."

"Three days," he said.

"You waited three days, Alpha." I let a smile into my voice. "That is a record."

He started to laugh, and the laugh broke off halfway, and his hand tightened on me.

"Althea. Say the word and I'm in the yard."

"Go up," I said. "Ahead of me."

He climbed past me into the loft and turned and held out his hand.

I looked at it for a long moment, and then I took it.

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