Page 63 of Hooked

We must have been quite a sight. Me wrapped in Falstone’s short coat and clearly lacking a proper skirt. Falstone with no coat at all. The innkeeper looked at us askance, but Falstone explained that we were a newly married couple, unfortunate enough to be attacked by bandits. The innkeeper looked skeptical, but he capitulated, leading us to a room.

One room. For the both of us to share.

Falstone quickly lit a fire as I stood there, unsure what to do next. He finished with the fire and turned to see me wide-eyed and stuck to the floor. “I need to see to the horse. I’ll return in a few minutes?” The question was in his voice as well as on his face. He wasn’t sure I’d be all right.

I nodded. “Go ahead. I will be well.”

He looked at me for one more moment of indecision then left the room.

I took advantage of the privacy to ready for bed, grateful for the bowl of warm water the innkeeper’s wife had provided for us so that I could wash the day away. If only dirt was the single lingering stain.

Falstone returned to find me perched on the edge of the bed, huddled in his coat as I stared at the fire, exhausted but terrified to close my eyes.

His smile was warm and commiserating, likely fully aware of my fragility. “Get some sleep,” Falstone said, his voice gruff as he nodded toward the pillow. Then he sat down on the floor, obviously planning to sleep there.

I didn’t want him to sleep there. I wanted him to sleep beside me, but of course that was brazen and terrible of me to think such a thing. But I thought it anyway, because the last thing I wanted was to sleep by myself in a strange bed after the days I had just endured. But despite my kissing him so willingly on the road here, I did have some sense of propriety, and I knew him too well to think that he would take the bed. So I resigned myself to him sleeping on the floor.

“Here.” I removed the coat from my shoulders. “At least take your coat and put it under your head,” I said, tossing it to him. There was so much more I wished to say, but our unconventional situation left me timid and unsure. So I simply climbed beneath the thin blanket and turned to the wall, desperate for sleep to overtake me but fearing what the darkness would bring.

***

I couldn’t wake up. I was whimpering, crying out, trying to escape the darkness of a dream too real. A hand took hold of my arm and I jerked awake.

“Shh,” Falstone hushed. “It’s just me.” He knelt beside the bed and laid the upper half of his body on the mattress, his head settling next to mine as he wrapped an arm around my waist. “I cannot bear to hear your cries anymore, so forgive me, but I am going to sleep here so that you know you are safe.”

I let out a deep sigh of relief and fell immediately back to sleep.

19

Sunlight was streaming into the dingy inn room when I awoke. Alone. I panicked for a moment until I saw Falstone’s coat draped over a chair. He must have stepped out for a moment. To check on his horse or arrange for a carriage or something.

While he was gone, I took care of my personal needs then splashed water on my face and wrapped myself in Falstone’s coat so that I could maintain a bit of decency when he returned. I sat on the bed and tried to comb my fingers through my hair. It was a lost cause, but I kept at it anyway, simply for something to do as my mind churned through the previous day’s events.

The captain’s insistence that we move up the wedding. Being dragged through the secret passage. Thinking he would toss me over the cliff. The ship. The clash of swords. The captain’s hand just…lying there on the deck of his ship.

I refocused my thoughts on what had been said. Falstone had gone to Norsing, to my uncle’s home. What had that been like? Was my mother there?

And why did that question hurt me?

Pushing that thought aside, I did my best to focus on the memory of Falstone appearing there on the deck. His powerful presence and the instant sense of safety and hope he’d provided.

He was truly magnificent, a man in every sense of the word.

There was a light knock on the door and I stiffened before realizing that anyone with ill intent would not knock.

“Yes?” I called, my voice shaking only slightly.

“It is I,” Falstone called back.

“Come in.”

He entered and the moment his gaze met mine, a blush stained his cheeks. Which of course made a blush rise to my own face.

He cleared his throat and offered me a large bundle of fabric, which turned out to be a cloak and a dress.

“Thank you,” I breathed in relief, immediately shucking off his coat so that I could throw the dress over my head.

I froze when I realized that Falstone was staring at me, wide-eyed. Our eyes locked for an uncomfortable moment before he turned his back to me.