Awakening Love: Reborn to Be His Duchess novel · Chapter 8 of 32

Chapter 8: You Asked

The stable fire started at two in the morning, and I woke to Wynne screaming my name through the door.

By the time I reached the yard half the roof was gone.

Grooms were running with buckets, and the horses were screaming too.

The duke was already inside.

I saw him come out through the smoke with my grey mare on a rope, her eyes rolled white, and he put the rope in a stable boy's hands and turned straight back in.

"Your Grace!" the head groom shouted. "The roof's coming!"

He went in anyway.

He came out the second time with Wynne's pony pressed against his chest.

A burning beam fell behind him as he cleared the door, and the whole yard shouted.

I was across the cobbles before I knew I had moved.

"Are you hurt?" I said.

"No."

He was black to the elbows and his coat sleeve was smouldering.

I beat it out with my bare hands.

"You are hurt."

"It is nothing."

"Alaric."

It was the first time I had used his name.

He stopped, and looked at me.

It was a quiet look, and for a moment the fire was a long way off.

"I will see to it," I said.

His dressing room had one lamp.

I sat him on a low chair and cleaned his hands in a basin, and he sat with his jaw set while I worked.

The old scar across his left palm had split open.

The skin around it was blistered and shining.

← Chapter 7 · All chapters · Chapter 9 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend