boots from her, going so far as to unknot her garters and pull her stockings down her legs as well.
No man had seen so much of her skin.
Cora bit her lip, ordering herself to be practical.
“Let’s get ye abovestairs,” Faolan said. He pushed off his knee and pulled her right over his shoulder in the same movement.
“Wait…” Cora pressed her hands against his wide back.
“Ye’ll be dead soon if I wait,” Faolan declared while climbing a set of stairs, which had been hidden in the shadows along the far side of the room.
She was hanging over his shoulder. Her cheeks heated as she felt his arm clasped across the back of her thighs to keep her in place.
Logical.
Wise.
Practical.
The words didn’t help a bit. She was mortified but far worse was a growing realization that she was so very helpless. She was still gritting her teeth to keep them from chattering. The chill was deep in her bones, making it impossible to deny just how true his words were.
If she didn’t get warm, she’d die.
He was her savior. Rough edges and all.
The heat in her cheeks intensified. She was in no position to judge him. She was shamed by her own reaction to him. He continued on though, climbing two more flights of stairs before he pushed a door open and ducked down to enter a chamber.
He placed her on her feet in the middle of the room.
“Get out of the rest of yer clothing,” he ordered.
Cora was struggling to see anything in the chamber, but he disappeared into a dark corner, returning with a shirt.
“Are ye too frozen, Mistress?”
Cora heard the note of resignation in his tone. He contemplated the lace holding her stays in place.
He had integrity.
There would be no one, including herself, who might reproach him for stripping her bare under the circumstances. But he held back, answering to his own code of ethics.
“Nae.” She forced her tongue to work. “I will …manage…”
He nodded and laid the shirt on the back of a chair. “I will be back soon.” He turned and left.
Outside, the wind was howling. Cora struggled to release the knot holding her stays closed as the window shutters rattled and rain hit them so hard it sounded like gravel being hurled at them. The stone of the tower was bitterly cold, but it was solid. She took solace in the security the stone afforded her. Her stays opened at last. She laid them on the chair and ordered herself to pull her smock up and over her head.
Left bare, she reached for the shirt and struggled into it. Her skin was still wet, making it a fight to get the dry cloth down her body. She shivered violently, her entire body shaking. Cold hurt. It wasn’t her first encounter with the fact, but it was the most extreme.
Faolan rapped on the door before it opened, and he came back into the room. He grunted approval at her before he came close.
“We need to get the water out of yer hair, Mistress.”
A long length of fabric was in his hands. He reached out and began to rub it on her head. He worked it for several long moments before nodding his head in satisfaction.
“Now, into bed with ye, Mistress, this is a simple place. The only hearth is in the kitchen, and me men are there. So best to keep ye here.”
“Yes, thank ye…” Her jaws ached from clenching them so long. Cora turned, seeking the bed. Soon, she’d be warm. She tried to focus on the idea of the bedding easing the agony of the cold. She took one step, but by the second one, she’d lost some of her balance and ended up stumbling to the side.
Faolan scooped her up. His body was warm, offering her a moment of delight before he was lowering her to the surface of the bed. He pulled the coverlet up to her chin, but she let out a little moan as the cold bedding added to her suffering.
It felt like her flesh was being scraped away.
Remaining still was impossible. She withered, moving her limbs in an attempt to warm up.
“Thank ye,” she muttered when she realized Faolan was standing near the bed, contemplating her. “I’ll be warm soon.”
There was only a single candle lantern near the door. The way the wind was howling, she could understand why the candle wasn’t sitting on the table, but the tin lantern only allowed light out through the slits carved into it.