The Lady Knight

Chapter XXVI: Feelings and Frustrations

The Lady Knight

I was utterly touched. A gentle smile unfolded upon my lips just then, as I held his gaze.

"I am very sorry for worrying you, Nick," I answered softly, "but I cannot promise you that I will not put myself in danger again. I am an army officer, and 'tis the nature of my job."

Slowly, but surely, he returned my smile, tinged with sadness.

"I understand," he blew a breath through his lips, "and I admire you for pledging your life to protecting and defending our country, I truly do. Not many people are prepared to make such a sacrifice, and I respect you for that."

I was surprised. "Thank you."

"But I am not going to lie. Waiting for you to come back was...shit hard," he ran a hand through his hair, "I have faith in you, but it so happens that I also have an overactive imagination." He sounded resigned.

I patted his shoulder. "Most unfortunate."

He chuckled faintly, as he lifted my hand from his shoulder, and cradled it in his. "How are your hands?" he asked in concern, as he examined it with caution, before looking up at my face, "and your cheek?"

"They do not hurt so much now," I assured him, "I am still learning to lift small things, and make proper use of my hands again, but it will be all right soon. The physician said I will be fine."

He nodded absent-mindedly, still tracing the burns on my hand as gently as possible. "The scars?"

I shrugged, nonchalant. "They will be there forever."

"And your brother?" he asked after a moment of hesitation.

A small, soft smile lit up my face. "Until he had come, I had not realised truly how much I had missed him. You made me very happy by bringing him from Cavarriere," I confessed quietly, "it was very thoughtful of you. Thank you so much."

He was surprised for a moment by the amount of sincerity in my voice. "It is no problem," he grinned, before, "but by the Lord, your brother is truly frightening. He had all but threatened to murder me in the most painful way possible if your condition deteriorated by the time we reached Vareniol together. Or if I caused you any pain at all. Safe to say, my Lady, it was the most perilous journey I had undertaken."

I laughed softly. I could indeed imagine Max threatening Nick with that eerily dangerous expression of his, although the latter was at least half a foot taller than he was.

"Your father sends his regards, and he was very sorry he was unable to come," he added, rubbing his neck, "but he had pressing matters to deal with Lord Jasper."

My eyes narrowed. Had Max told him to say that?

I offered him a twisted smile. "My father cares not a whit in the first place, let alone send any sort of regards for me," I rolled my eyes, pretending that it did not affect me, "there is no need to lie. I know."

His face showed plain shock. Before he could comment on that, I turned away from him and picked up the wet blankets from the ground, careful to use my arms to carry them instead of my hands.

"Now, if you will excuse me, I have to put these out to dry now before Lady Violante comes after me," I shot him a small smile, peering above the stack of blankets at him, "I will return in a few minutes."

He stepped forward. "Give them to me, Julie," he stretched out his hands to tug at the blankets I was holding, "I will dry them for you. You can go inside and rest in the meanwhile."

I shook my head. "I am perfectly all right. I can dry them myself, thank you."

"You cannot even hold them properly as it is," he pointed out, tugging them towards him, "and wet blankets are ten times heavier than the dry ones."