Page 103 of The Shadow Path
“She’s right next door.”
“Like I said, stab anything you don’t recognize.” He stomped out of the room and came back less than five minutes later. “She nearly stabbedme.”
Carys smirked. “She grew up with sisters. You can’t really take Laura by surprise.”
Duncan tossed his pack on a chair by the fire, then walked to her wardrobe. “Warm clothes. Socks. It’s cold in this room.”
“Are you fussing?” She sat on the edge of the bed.
“Fussing?” He dropped his arms, which were holding up a warm wool tunic. “Did you just accuse me of fussing?”
She collapsed back on the bed, patting the mattress beside her. “I’m taking off my shoes and sleeping.”
“You’re changing.” He walked over and tugged at the ties holding her trousers up. “You’re changing because you’ve been wearing these clothes for hours and you will sleep better out of them.”
Had she been in London only hours ago? Her shirt still smelled like sunlight.
Carys watched Duncan, eyes half closed already, as he swiftly undressed her. “This is not how I imagined your first night in my bed would be.”
The corner of his mouth ticked up. “It’s not our first night in bed, and there will be no fucking. We both need to sleep.” He tugged off her trousers and let them fall on the floor.
“Last night wasn’t our first night in bed. It was our first night in bath.”
Duncan snorted as he pulled her up to sitting. “You’re exhausted.”
“Are you staying with me?” She didn’t want to be alone.
“Yes.” He took a deep breath and looked longingly at her nearly naked body before he put the nightgown over her head. “But no fucking.”
“Do you know that fuck is one of the oldest profanities in English? First recorded usage was in the… fourteenth century, I think.”
“Fascinating, Professor Morgan.”
“And it’s likely from an earlier Indo-European root because both Germanic and Romance languages have some version of it that has the same or related meaning.”
He threw back the heavy coverlet, picked her up, and set her in the bed before he drew the covers up. “That must explain why it’s such a useful fucking word.”
“It really is, right?” She was already drifting to sleep when she felt him get in the bed, scoot closer to her, and wrap his arms around her body. “So many…” She yawned. “…different parts of speech.”
“Sleep, Carys.”
She had one moment to feel the comfort of Duncan’s arms around her before she completely lost consciousness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Nêrys.
She opened her eyes at the sound of his voice. “Cadell?”
Duncan was still sleeping, and the light outside her shuttered window was pearly and pale blue.
She eased out of bed and wrapped herself in a heavy dressing gown that Duncan had placed at the foot of the bed, then walked to the hallway, but when she opened the door, she saw nothing.
Nêrys.
Cadell, where are you?
In the garden.His voice sounded hollow. As empty and grieving as the first time she’d heard him in her mind.
