Page 66 of Castle of Refuge

Audrey took comfort in the sincerity in his voice, so she slid closer to him until she was pressed against his side and her head was resting against his shoulder—or the place where his arm used to be. Why did she not cringe at his missing arm? Not only did she not cringe, but she felt safe, warm, and comfortable beside him.

After what was probably a few minutes, he said, “Your teeth aren’t chattering anymore.”

It was true. She hadn’t noticed, but he had.

“I hope I’m not making you uncomfortable,” she said. Then she noticed how near his face was to hers. Her breath began to come faster. Was her nearness affecting him the way it was affecting her? She suddenly remembered what Maris had said about him being no longer pledged to marry Lady Ophelia. Was she telling the truth?

“You’re not bothering me at all. I’m quite comfortable, but I’m afraid we need to move again, to get out of the spray from the waterfall.”

Audrey had been holding herself stiffly, trying not to lean against him too much. Now he reached out to feel around and she leaned away from him.

Lord Dericott seemed to be searching around the rock where they were sitting.

“There is a space under the outcropping here. We need to get out of the wet so we don’t freeze. It gets cold at night.”

There was indeed a space where she’d thought there was a wall of rock. Lord Dericott crawled on his knees, using his elbow and forearm to move along the wet surface.

Audrey followed him. It was drier there than where they had been sitting. But there was no way to sit in the small space without being quite close to him. She hesitated to touch him as he maneuvered himself as far back against the rock as he could go.

Audrey moved closer, her face once again coming quite close to his.

“Do not worry. I won’t bite.”

Audrey laughed, a nervous little sound. She kept her elbows tight to her sides and her hands clasped in front of her chest.

“Do you think they will give up looking for us?” Audrey said, more to break the awkward silence than anything else.

“I don’t know, but I do not think they will find us here.”

The way they were sitting—almost facing each other in the confined space—her hands were just touching his chest. But she was warmer and suddenly her eyelids were quite heavy. A thought came to her.

“This is the second time you have come looking for me.” She smiled.

“And I found you. Both times.”

“How did you do it this time? Did you see my ribbons and the pieces of parchment?”

“I did. It was very clever of you to leave a trail for someoneto find. They led me straight to you. Where did you get the parchment?”

“I had a piece in my pocket, and since my hands were tied in front of me, I could still get the parchment out and tear off a piece of it. But they did eventually catch me and took it away.”

“They did not hurt you, did they? I saw a bit of blood...”

“Oh no. I cut my thumb on a thornbush.” Her heart skipped at the thought of him being concerned about her. She looked at him closely and saw that he had a bloody scratch on his forehead. She wanted to mention it, to help him clean it. And she wished she had some of Mistress Wattlesbrook’s ointment to put on it, but that was not possible at the moment.

“They did injure my guard.”

“I know. He was not seriously injured, was he?”

“I don’t know. He had not awakened yet when we discovered him.”

“Oh no. I’m so sorry.”

“It is not your fault, and he still may be well. Time will tell. What did they intend to do to you?”

“My sister said she wanted to take me to Sir Clement. She was so adamant about me marrying Sir Clement. She was trying to talk me into going to his home and begging him to marry me. Which I never would have done, of course. And I do believe they would have killed me eventually.”

“Does she know that Sir Clement gave up all claim to marrying you?”