“Meggie! Damnation, wake up! What the hell’s wrong? Wake up!”
The man slapped her face, and not light taps either, he really smacked her good, and it made her so mad that she reared right up and said in his face, “Don’t hit me again or I’ll clout you back.”
Thomas said, “Good, that’s better. Please don’t clout me. Are you all right?”
“I must think about that.”
“Jesus, Meggie, I heard you scream, thought the thunder and lightning frightened you. I’m sorry I slapped you so hard, but I was scared, you wouldn’t wake up.” He grabbed her against him. She felt his pounding heart beneath her cheek.
She said against his shoulder, “You really heard me scream? I didn’t know if I managed to get it out before whoever it was hit me on the side of the head with something hard.”
His breath caught in his throat and he coughed, and continued to cough until Meggie got herself together enough to hit him on the back.
“What did you say?” he finally got out, his voice a croak. “Oh God, you’re bleeding.” He stared at her blood, wetting two of his fingers. He was up in a flash, hauling her in his arms and gently laying her out on the bed, as if for burial. She expected him to fold her hands over her breast, but he didn’t. “Don’t move.” And off he went, lit a candle, then searched every inch of the White Room. He closed the window, as rain was blowing into the room. A huge strike of lightning filled the room with light. He still saw nothing. He pulled the draperies closed over the battering rain. Then he opened the bedchamber door and went into the corridor. It was some minutes before he was back.
“No sign of anyone.” He placed the candle on the small table just beside the bed, and leaned over to gently ease her hair away from the wound.
He cursed, fluently, with great variety, she thought, and she asked, “Did you make those things up?”
“Make what up? Are you all right, Meggie?”
“The curses, all those incredible uses of animal body parts, did you make them up?”
He grinned, just couldn’t help himself. “No. All of those words have been around for a very very long time. Does this hurt?”
Meggie bit her bottom lip and yelped. “I’m sorry, just a bit, not bad—”
“All right. Be quiet, I’m going to get you cleaned up. Don’t move, Meggie.”
She didn’t. Her head was starting to pound and truth be told, she felt light-headed. The wispy candlelight was wavering, the white walls were shimmying a bit, now leaning to the right.
“Oh dear,” she said, and held up her hand in front of her face.
“Meggie, what are you doing?”
“I want to see if I can count my fingers.”
“Damn,” he said, then pulled the covers over her. “Whoever hit you, knocked you out, and that can be dangerous. Now, count my fingers. How many am I holding up?”
“I believe there are three fingers there. Do you know, Thomas, all of those fingers you’re waving about have touched me very intimately?”
“Well, yes, I suppose that’s true.”
“Particularly that middle finger of yours—it’s rather long—goodness, I remember just a couple of hours ago when you—”
“Yes, yes, Meggie, I remember everything about that finger. Now, do you hurt?”
She nodded, and that small movement nearly sent her into oblivion. She managed to hold really still until the pain let up. She said then, “You shouldn’t have left me. I was kissing you all over your face, and you told me you wanted to sleep in your own bed. Why did you do that, Thomas?”
“You want the truth? No, don’t frown like that, you’ll just scramble your brains. Lie still and relax. All right, I’ll spit it out. I left because I’m afraid of storms, have been since I was a little boy. I didn’t want you to see your strong manly husband cowering when lightning filled the sky and thunder sounded like cannon fire, in fear for his life.”
“It’s not all that bad. Whatever happened when you were a boy, I’ll make you forget it. I’ll hold you close. You can cower all you want.”