THE SUN SHONE through the windows when Beatrice next woke. She lay and watched as Reynaud washed his face in the basin on the dresser. He’d donned smallclothes but nothing else yet, and the muscles of his back flexed as he moved, making the scars ripple.
“You haven’t told me how you managed to escape your captivity,” she said quietly.
Did it matter anymore? She didn’t know. Perhaps not, but she still needed to know.
He turned, unsurprised, at the sound of her voice. “You’re awake.”
“Yes.” She drew the covers up over her chin. It was warm, and the bed smelled faintly of their combined intimate scents. She rather wished she could spend all day in it and never have to get up to face her realities. Right here, right now, she could pretend she had a loving marriage.
“Will you tell me?” she asked softly.
He faced the dresser again and she thought he’d refuse. He took up a razor and a strip of leather and began stropping it. She’d noticed that although he had a very competent valet, Reynaud liked to do most of his dressing himself. Perhaps he hadn’t yet gotten used to a personal servant.
o;I’m not silly,” she said, pulling her thread too tight. “It’s just . . .”
“What?” he snapped.
She laid down her work and looked at him, drawing a deep breath. “You’re obsessed with regaining your title, your monies, your lands, everything you lost, in fact, and I understand that, but there’s more than that for you to think about.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, his face sharp and lined.
Beatrice lifted her chin. “Have you thought about what you’ll do once you become the earl?”
“I’ll manage my estates, attend to my land and investments.” He waved an impatient hand. “What else do you suggest I do?”
She laid a hand on her worktable, clutching the edge. He could be so intimidating when angered! “You could do so much good as the earl—”
“And I intend to,” he said.
“Do you?” Her voice was sharp, and she no longer cared. He was dismissing her and her thoughts out of hand. “Do you? All I’ve heard you talk about is your house, your monies, your lands. Have you no thought of how you’ll live your life once you already have all those things? You’ll sit in the House of Lords. You’ll be able to vote on bills before parliament, even champion your own if you wish.”
“You talk to me like I’m an infant, Beatrice,” he snapped. “What are you trying to get at?”
“There’s a bill that’ll be presented tomorrow,” she said before she could lose courage. “Mr. Wheaton’s veteran’s pension bill. It would provide for soldiers who are no longer in His Majesty’s army, give them a pension so they wouldn’t have to beg on the street—”
He waved a dismissive hand. “I don’t have the time right now to—”
She slammed her hand down on her desk, making the book slide to the floor. He turned, looking at her in astonishment.
Beatrice drew herself up. “When will you have the time, Reynaud? When?”
“I’ve told you,” he said coldly. “After I am certain of my title.”
“You’ll just suddenly start caring for others then? Is that it?” She’d begun to shake. This discussion was no longer about Mr. Wheaton’s bill. It’d become bigger somehow. “Tell me, Reynaud, do you love me?”
He cocked his head, eyeing her warily. “Why are you asking me now?”
Hot tears stung her eyes, but she kept them open, staring at him. “Becuase I think you’ve kept your emotions under such tight rein for so long that you no longer know how to let them loose. I don’t think you can care for others at all.”
And she walked from the sitting room.
Chapter Fifteen
The princess shrank in fear, but though he knelt on one knee, Longsword did not flinch. He met the dragon’s charge with the steel of his blade. Once, twice, thrice, he swung his mighty sword, and when at last the dust had cleared and all was silent again, there lay the great dragon, dying at his feet. And as the beast died, its form changed until a horrid hag lay in its place, for it was the evil witch herself who had assumed the shape of a dragon.
Well! The princess was quite pleased, I can tell you. She rushed to release her father the king. When it was made known to him that Longsword had by himself defeated the evil witch, the king was happy indeed to give his only child as a reward.
And so it was that Longsword married a princess royal….