Midnight Eyes by Brophy, Sarah (well read books .TXT) 📕

to the core and the aching limbs and blistered feet that she had momentarily forgotten in the haze of desire returned to her with a vengeance. She let her head fall against his chest to hide the embarrassment that stained her cheeks. “I don’t think I can make it all the way back to the Keep, not without falling over,” she said stiffly, hating her helplessness.

Robert’s brow creased with concern. “But there is nowhere else that we can go. I don’t like being out in the open at night in the snow.”

“Gareth said that we were quite near to the tower,” she said slowly after a moment. “I’d like to visit it, if we could go there.”

“A pile of rocks with no door won’t be doing us much good,” he said dryly, trying to ignore the jealousy that flared at the sound of the other man’s name on lips he had just possessed so thoroughly.

“There is a door.”

“Ah, actually, there isn’t. Matthew and I walked round the thing this morning and the only holes to be seen were windows near the top and they are no good to us unless you know how to fly.”

“Just because you didn’t see one doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist.” Her chin shot up defiantly. “The door to the tower is twenty strides to the east of the tower itself, beside a stone marker. The trapdoor is obscured by brush and it covers a stone staircase.”

Robert’s brows shot up. “Good lord!” he muttered. “Not that it does us any good. The bloody thing would fall down around our ears if we tried to shelter there. The whole structure is dangerously unstable.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so. It should be safe enough.”

“You wouldn’t be so sure if you had seen the stones lying about everywhere.”

“I can’t see stones, be they lying or part of a hundred-foot wall,” she muttered darkly, making Robert almost glad she couldn’t see, and was therefore ignorant of the dark flush that rose up his neck.

She sighed.

“I’m not trying to say you didn’t see what you saw,” she said slowly as if to a simple child, “but that I think you’ve misinterpreted it.”

Robert felt his jaw tighten. “Oh, yes, and how would you interpret it?” he asked with mock politeness.

She smiled, and leaned closer to whisper confidingly in his ear. “Well, Robert, I’d draw on my still-functioning memory and recall someone saying that the rubble around the tower wasn’t from stones coming down so much as from having them never gone up in the first place.”

Robert stared at her blankly for a moment.

“Hadn’t thought of that,” he admitted sheepishly. “So, my lady, in your informed opinion, do you think the tower will be safe enough for us to shelter there for the night?” Robert asked simply, seemingly impervious to the chaos he created inside her.

She felt as if her brain was going to explode with confusion. She had gone through so many emotions in such a short space of time that she now couldn’t seem to adjust to Robert’s strange, calmly accepting behavior. She hadn’t expected him to actually admit that he could be wrong. Roger certainly would not have. It bewildered her so much that she didn’t quite know how to react. Her world had suddenly shifted and she no longer knew what was expected of her.

“Probably,” she said frowning.

He leaned over and dropped a small kiss on her frown. “Well then, we had better be off if we don’t intend being eaten by wolves.”

He helped her to her feet, went and stamped out the embers of the fire after making a torch to light the gloom. Imogen tried to take a small step, but the pain from her badly blistered feet was so intense she could have screamed with it. Pride, however, demanded that she keep her inadequacies to herself and she quickly made her face blank.

“Are you all right?” Robert asked, his voice tight with concern as he appeared suddenly at her side.

He sounded sincere, but she couldn’t stop herself from reaching up a hand to feel if he meant it. His face muscles were tense, his soft lips pressed in a firm line of worry. He really was concerned about her, she realized with some astonishment.

“No, I don’t think I am,” she said slowly, frightened by her own honesty.

“Damn,” he swore softly, then broke into a boyish grin. “I left Dagger quite near here. I had thought to send someone back for him to save you walking further away from the Keep, but how would you like a moonlight gallop? You’re not afraid of horses, are you?”

She caught her bottom lip in her teeth as she shook her head, trying to hold in the delight that swamped her. A horse! How long had it been since she had sat on a horse and felt its muscles strain as it worked to make them fly?

“I’d love to go for a ride,” she said and couldn’t stop her voice from squeaking with excitement.

He lifted her effortlessly into his arms and nestled her against him. “Well then, my lady, your steed awaits. We have no time to waste.”

She smiled and said almost to herself, “Oh, Robert, if only you could comprehend just how much time has been wasted already.”

She ran her hands gently over the velvet of the horse’s nose. Dagger blew softly into her palms, then moved his head to nudge her between the shoulder blades, causing her to stumble. She laughed softly.

“Oh, so now you have forgiven me for waking you from your sleep, have you?” she murmured. “Somehow I don’t think Sir Robert is going to be quite so forgiving.” Her smile broadened as the sound of Robert’s frustrated swearing carried to her clearly on the breeze.

It was strange but she found herself unafraid of Robert’s temper.

Her bewilderment hadn’t gone away by any means, but one thing was becoming increasingly clear to her: Robert was like no man she had ever met before. The rules that