“You’ve sustained a head injury not to mention a variety of bruises and swelling. You need to rest.”
“And you need to step back.”
“Cora, I’ll step back when you promise to lie down, not get excited and rest.”
“How did you get here?” I snapped.
“I’ve no idea.”
“What happened?” I asked, forcing my hands between are bodies and pushing against his chest, to no avail so I gave up and went on. “The last thing I remember is losing consciousness.”
He nodded. “You did. I picked you up, carried you to our rooms. Perdita and the women from the kitchens had come out; they heard us arguing and saw your fall. Algernon was there as well and I sent him to fetch my physician. One of the women got you ice for a bump on your head. I was holding you in my arms and the ice on your head when Algernon and my physician arrived. The next thing I knew, your entire body was surrounded by a blue mist, it surrounded mine with yours and then we were in that,” his head gave a small jerk backwards, “bed.”
I stared up at him. “A blue mist?”
“A blue mist.”
“What blue mist?” I asked.
“I’ve no idea. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Never?”
“Never.”
“So we didn’t disappear when I passed out?”
“No.”
Weird.
I turned my head, looked down at myself and saw I was wearing the stretchy, cotton charcoal gray nightie with the dusty pink band at the top that I’d been wearing the last night I went to sleep in my world.
Then I looked to him. “Where’d you get your clothes? Did you wake up in those?”
“No,” he gave another jerk of his head and I saw his clothing from his world, including boots, dumped in a corner. “These were in your wardrobe which, sweets, is incredibly small.”
Clothes that fit him perfectly were in my closet?
Oh man. I didn’t think that was good.
“As is your whole dwelling,” he went on. “It’s also filthy. You cleaned a cave. How on earth do you live like this?”
“Well, Tor, I haven’t been living in my dwelling for two months, now, have I?” I asked snottily then demanded, “Move away.”
“Cora –”
I gave another shove of my hands, doing it with such effort it hurt my head (and my, I belatedly realized, aching muscles) but he rocked back an inch.
Then he came right back. “Not until you promise you’ll settle down and rest.”
“I’ll promise to settle down and rest if you’ll get, the f**k, away from me!” I screeched.
His head tilted and his chin went down just as his eyes closed slowly and, God’s honest truth, he looked in pain.
It proved to be true when he opened his eyes and locked them with mine.
Yep, he was in pain. Lots of it.