War of Destiny: Lost Soul

Chapter 3

I awoke to feel someone throw a blanket of some sort over me. I hadn't realized until I felt the warmth of it how cold I actually was. I heard voices as someone lifted me into their arms.

"Oh, my poor sister! I knew she and Father had argued, but I did not see her before she left our house. Father just said she ran off, upset. She must have been attacked by a bandit, Thomas . . ."

"I don't know what happened, Miss Crystal. I found her here and ran to tell your father." This voice was vaguely familiar, but I could not rouse myself sufficiently to speak, nor even to think clearly. I heard my sister say something about how glad she was that whoever was carrying me had found her before he had had a chance to speak to our father. Then I cuddled deeper into the blanket and drifted off to sleep again.

When I fully awoke much later, I was lying on the bed in the mansion I shared with Gregory. I was covered with blankets and my husband was pacing alongside the bed. I forced my eyes to bring the room into focus and had just succeeded when Gregory stubbed his toe on the dresser. "Damn!" he swore in barely contained anger.

"What?" I said.

"You are awake," Gregory said, stopping at my side. He reached out and touched my hand.

"No, you're seeing things," I answered, surprising myself again by the sarcasm coming out of my mouth after such a wretched night. Gregory's countenance showed confusion, but then became blank. Instinctively, I cringed. That was the look he got right before he either started yelling at me or hitting me.

"What were you doing last night, Juliana? Some young rogue, along with your sister, brought you home in a shameful state. Your sister said he used to work for your family."

My recollection of events after I collapsed on the road was confused and incomplete. Was it Adam, then, who had brought me home with Crystal? But what if Gregory somehow realized . . .

"I met Crystal, as I told you I was going to do, and we went to see my mother, who is sick. After we arrived, my father and I had an argument about—" I considered a moment, but saw no reason to lie about the topic of our ill-fated conversation—"about what freedoms I should be allowed." Gregory's eyes narrowed under brows drawn together in displeasure. "He threw a stool at me and I fled. I collapsed and fell asleep along a road."

"You probably deserved it," Gregory muttered. This reminded me of what my father had said. Did all men think this way? I had thought men were supposed to be our champions and protectors.

My sister had entered the room silently sometime during this exchange. "I was walking in our garden at sunrise, Gregory, when the young man who found her came running up the road. His name is Thomas and it is true: his whole family used to work for mine." Crystal looked at me, concern etched on her face. "You could have died out there, Juliana."

I nodded. "I know," I answered in a whisper, remembering how I had wished to die when I fell on the road.

"Gregory, now that my sister is awake, I must return home and see how my mother fares, as well as inform my father about Julia's condition. I shall return as soon as possible. Is there someone who can care for her in my absence?"

"We have servants, you know."

"Of course." She turned to me and kissed my cheek, the unbruised one, gently. I had not realized how starved I was for a tender touch. "Rest, Julia. I will not be gone long." I asked her not to worry Mother about what had happened, and she promised not to.

After the front door thudded shut Gregory turned back to me. His anger, which I had hoped would have ebbed by now, had not. "You should have come home. How can it be that my wife is found injured and unconscious on the side of the road?" Ah, so his concern was for his reputation, not my welfare. How foolish of me to have hoped otherwise!