with a clean one.
“You need to take more care,” she told him, placing a hand on his chest. She could feel his heart under her fingers, strong but too fast. She bent over to look into his face. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
“It’s late,” he said, placing his hand on hers. “You’re very late today.”
She flushed at the contact. “The Duke’s visit has kept everyone busy.”
“I missed your company.”
He squeezed her hand, and she felt her heart race ahead of his. Suddenly his skin felt very warm, and she didn’t think it was from fever or exertion.
Then he let go and said, “But you must go. Now.”
She drew back, his words feeling like a slap on her face. “What?”
He sat up, even though the pain it caused him was visible. “Please, go now. Go home before the sun sets. Don’t face these woods after nightfall, I beg of you. And please don’t ask me why.”
She saw pain and fear in his eyes and said, “You’re scaring me.”
“Good.”
“Josef?”
“Please, now. There is nothing more important for you to attend to here.”
The intensity of his words, and of his look, pushed her away. “As you wish,” she said, backing out of the room.
She left wondering if, somehow, he knew about Darien.
Even so, there was little chance of her leaving before nightfall. The feasting had still been ongoing when she had brought Josef his meal. She couldn’t go until the revelers themselves had decided that the evening had concluded. So when she left Gród Narew, the sun had long since set.
Once she had no work to occupy her, her thoughts drifted to her face. On her way out, she stepped through one of the display halls where the devices of many allied clans hung on the walls: the threefold cross of Bojcza, the double-headed arrow of Bogorya, the cross-studded horseshoe of Dabrowa, the split-tailed cross of Kostrowiec.
What stopped her wasn’t the collection of arcane glyphs of the many clans allied with Wojewoda BolesÅ‚aw but the weapons on display between the painted shields and banners. The blades had been polished before being set to peacetime rest in this hallway, and she could observe her reflection in the flat of an axe blade.
Her face was clearly unmarked.
It made no sense to her. Yesterday her eye had been inflamed, her cheek livid with the bruise from Lukasz’s blow. Josef had been right to wonder. But perhaps she had been mistaken about the severity of her bruise, because it was clearly healed now.
It took an effort of will not to rub her cheek, drawing even more attention to her sudden healing, as she left the fortress.
Outside, the night was starless and without a moon. Dense clouds glowed a dull silver, giving the landscape an unearthly aspect beyond her lantern’s reach. She walked to the edge of the woods, thinking of Josef. His warnings frightened her, but some other part of her welcomed his concern. She had spent so long being burdensome, irrelevant, beneath notice, that just an interest in her welfare from someone without any obligation to care was comforting.
If only …
But even though she could still feel Josef’s heartbeat beneath her fingertips, she didn’t finish the thought, because there was nowhere good it might lead.
When a man finally took her, it would not be someone young or handsome or noble. Her marriage would be to an old widower looking for someone to care for his children or his household. The best she might hope for would be some measure of kindness.
She walked home on the path, her mood darker than the woods around her. Was that her life? Was that all she could look forward to? A reward in Heaven? And what would she have before then?
Perhaps she should follow Josef’s example and join a holy order.
With her downcast mood, it wasn’t surprising when Darien chose to reveal himself.
Why are you haunting me? she thought when she saw his lithe, muscular form stride out of the woods in front of her. She stopped walking and they stood facing each other, just a few steps beyond arm’s reach. For several moments, the only sound came from the wind rustling through the treetops.
The woods always turn silent around him.
“So you took it off, didn’t you?” he said finally.
She caught her breath, then placed her hand over her heart, holding the cross, and shook her head. “No, I didn’t.” I’m still wearing it. It’s still protecting me.
“Lies do not become you,” he said. “The marks on your face