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

reasons, she hadn’t wanted to tell him about the baby. She knew it would only give him one more thing to worry about when already he was trying to protect the world. But now she couldn’t hold it in. She frowned as she tried to find the words to tell him. “Robert, there is something I must tell you before…” she started, but he cut ruthlessly over the top of her with an urgent growl.

“You have to be safe, Imogen. Regardless of what happens to me, you must be safe. Claim complete ignorance; throw yourself at William’s mercy; run away. Do whatever it takes to make sure you stay safe. You are all I care about and if you let anything happen to you, I will…Well, I don’t know what I will do, but trust me when I say you don’t want to find out! Do you understand?” he finished furiously, making the dear words sound like a threat.

He shook her gently till she managed to choke out a startled, “Yes.”

“Excellent,” he breathed with a satisfied sigh, then stole one more heated kiss. Even after making love once more after their first heated coupling and having held her tightly in between, Robert still hadn’t had enough of her.

This time it was Imogen who ended the kiss.

“But I won’t abandon you,” she said with fervent determination, wanting him to understand. “I will only do what I believe to be right.”

Robert let out a rush of frustrated cursing at her obstinacy. “I should tie you up and give you back to Gareth stuffed in a bag,” he muttered with disgust, painfully aware of how powerless he truly was.

“I love you too,” Imogen smiled softly as she stood, quickly finding the dress she had discarded earlier and shaking the straw from the skirts.

Through worried eyes he watched as she pulled it over her head, enjoying the sight of her easy movements, but feeling sick to his stomach with the knowledge that in a cell there was nothing he could do to protect her. Even when he tried to stand up and pull her close he was defeated by the chains that held him. Hearing his struggle, she reached out a hand and clumsily found his bare shoulder, gently pushing him back to his knees before he hurt himself. She then tenderly touched his face in farewell, lingering as tears gathered in her eyes.

Robert grabbed her hand in both of his and placed a string of heated kisses on her palm. “I love you too, Wife, with all my heart, body and soul,” he said hoarsely. “That’s why I’m as worried as hell for you and ranting like a madman. I need you to be safe.”

Imogen pulled her hand away as the three knocks came again impatiently.

“I know,” she said, tears now falling freely down her cheeks. When she heard his moan of distress and the sound of his chains rattling as he tried to reach for her again, she knew she had to leave before it became too painful for them both. She turned quickly and felt her way to the door, opened it quietly and left without another word.

Imogen closed her chamber’s door on Gareth’s almost silent retreating footsteps, leaning her hot forehead against the cool wood. She was incapable of stopping the seemingly endless stream of tears from falling. She could feel the dawn breaking on the morning Robert might be taken from her forever and she grieved for herself, for him and for the precious child their love had produced.

That she hadn’t told him about their baby saddened her, but she knew it was for the best. He was already tormented with worry for her, if he knew about the baby as well, he would only suffer more. It was selfish to burden him further.

A baby shouldn’t be a burden, but a joy, a joy Robert deserved to have to its full extent. She would wait and tell him at a time when it would bring only happiness. The baby had waited this long to know its father, it could certainly wait a little longer.

She bit her lip as the horrendous possibility occurred to her that there might be no more time left to them. What if this new day brought only death and darkness? What if that darkness consumed Robert, consumed them all?

She turned from the door and wrapped her arms around the slight swell of her stomach to protect the life that sheltered within. It was a futile gesture. She couldn’t even protect herself from what this day might bring.

“So, sister of mine, just what is it that you have been up to?” Roger asked silkily behind her, and she froze at the sound of the all-too-familiar voice in the darkness.

A shock of cold panic slipped down her spine as she felt his hand grip the back of her neck and his soft lips touching the side of her face as he ran his thumb slowly over her full bottom lip. To have Roger touch her lips, still bruised from Robert’s kisses, felt like a defilement and, for the first time in her life, she turned her head away from him.

He only laughed.

“You have managed to ruin everything, Imogen,” he said mildly. “Because of you, William won’t see me. I don’t think I have long to wait before the axe falls and it is all your fault.”

He suddenly applied a painful pressure to her neck, forcing her chin into her chest as she slowly sank to her knees. “You have meddled where you shouldn’t have, Sister dear, and I am afraid that you now must pay the price.”

Lifting his hands and releasing his hold on the back of her neck for a moment, he casually backhanded her, sending her sprawling to the ground.

“But don’t worry,” he whispered. “I have already come up with the most perfect way for you to apologize…”

Chapter Seventeen

Robert was wide-awake and staring broodingly at the stones when the cell door opened.