Page 114 of Bound to the Heartless Duke
Knowing it was getting late, Magnus guided the horse towards a roadside inn.
The commo room was warm when they entered, and they caught the scents of meat, fresh bread, and spilled ale. Magnus spoke with the innkeeper, his low voice, while Lily stood in the corner, watching the people within sight.
Her gaze snagged on a man sitting at a corner table. She paused. Something about the hunch of his shoulders, the color of his hair, dredged up a memory.
Instinctively, she moved towards him. But before she could take more than a few steps, another man stepped into her path.
The stranger was broad-shouldered and wore a grin too wide to be harmless. “Now there’s a face worth the trouble of the road,” he drawled, his eyes roaming over her.
“I’m sorry, I?—”
“No need to rush off,” he interrupted, moving closer. “It’s not every day I meet a lady traveling without her?—”
“She is not alone,” Magnus’s voice cut in.
The man stiffened, glancing over her shoulder at the tall figure behind her.
Magnus’s presence seemed to fill the room. Lily could almost feel his unyielding gaze boring into the man.
“I meant no harm,” the man muttered, seeming to have recognized Magnus’s rank. Immediately, he backed away.
“I suggest,” Magnus said, his tone deceptively mild, “you keep it that way.”
When the man slunk off, Lily heaved a sigh of relief, though her heart was still pounding in her chest.
She exhaled, and when she looked back at Magnus, she found his expression unreadable.
“I have secured a room for tonight. Let’s go,” he said, before turning away.
She watched him retreat for a few seconds before proceeding after him.
They entered a room, the space moderately large but well furnished and ventilated. The frame of the window reminded Lily of Medlin Manor for a brief moment.
“You should have stayed home,” Magnus said, breaking through her thoughts.
She turned around to look at him, her eyebrows knitted together. “This is my brother we are trying to find. Whatever he has done, he is my blood. I will not sit idly by while others hunt him down.”
“You are not helping,” he insisted evenly. “You are slowing things down.”
The words hit her like a slap across the face. “Slowing things down? I am here because I care for him. Because he needs me.”
“What he needs is for you to be safe,” Magnus countered, steel creeping into his voice. “And that is not here.”
She lifted her chin in defiance. “Do you think I cannot protect myself?”
“I think you underestimate the danger.”
“And I think,” she shot back, “that you overestimate your right to decide where I belong.”
For the first time that day, his composure cracked, his eyes narrowing on her. “You could have been hurt just now. You would have been if I hadn’t stepped in. Just like last time.”
“I could have handled him on my own,” she said hotly. “I do not need you to shield me from every shadow.”
“You think this is about need?” he asked, his voice low but intense. “It is not. I care for you and I do not like seeing you hurt. Is that enough reason for you?”
The air between them was no longer merely tense; it was thick, charged, and almost suffocating.
Lily’s heart rate quickened, though she refused to look away from him. “Perhaps you should not,” she said, “if you regret it so.”
