Page 35 of Her Runaway Duke
Levi stood before Siena could ask anything further, his breeches soaked through from sitting on the damp ground. Heheld out his left hand to assist her. She took it, the warmth of his touch rushing through her.
With everyone now safe and the fire contained, Siena had the chance to mull over Levi’s reaction when they had discovered the fire. The look on his face had been one of pure terror as his entire body had rigidly stood in one place.
That was panic if she had ever seen it. It was how she had felt on her wedding day, knowing what awaited her.
If it hadn’t been for Eliza, she never would have found her way out of it.
Which was why she was determined to be there for Levi. To help him come to terms with the event that had scarred him and had turned him into a shell of the man he used to be. She could see it within him, knew there was more to him that was struggling to come out, that he wouldn’t allow a voice.
The tenseness remained between them as they walked through the front door of the house together. An air of emptiness surrounded them as all of the servants had vacated to see to the fire – even the maids had likely been filling buckets and adding their assistance wherever possible.
Siena and Levi said nothing to one another as they climbed the stairs, taking the same turn at the landing as his bedroom was at the end of the wing where hers was located.
She paused in front of her door, waiting for him to stop, to say anything, but his steps continued down the corridor as he didn’t even look back at her.
“Levi?”
She didn’t know why she had called to him – she just knew that she didn’t want him to go. It was the first time she had called him by his first name without his prompting, and somehow it felt right. He might be a duke, but here, on this estate with just the two of them alone, they were Levi and Siena, two people who had found one another at a time when they both needed comfort.
“Are you truly well?” he asked, concern crossing his face. “Or were you injured?”
“I am well, although I fear my throat might ache for a few days from the smoke,” she said. “Would you like to… come in?”
She waved toward her bedchamber, and she saw the hesitation on his face. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the kiss they had shared or his reaction to the stable fire, but he seemed rather ill at ease.
“I won’t bite. I promise,” she said, attempting to inject some humor into the situation, but he didn’t seem to notice. “I suppose I was just hoping for some company after our ordeal.”
It was true, she realized. She didn’t want to be alone. But even more than that, she sensed that he needed someone, and it surprised her how much she wanted to be that person for him.
“Very well,” he said, walking by her stiffly.
“I suppose I shall need a bath, although I do not want to bother the maids, not with everything else they are busy with,” she said, which caused him to stand and walk to the door, and she held up a hand before he could do what he was likely planning and call for help for her. “No, please do not ask them.”
“Their first priority should be to see to your comfort.”
“I am fine. Truly,” she said. “Nothing that I cannot see to myself.”
She walked over to the washbasin in the corner, pouring water into the bowl before dipping linen into it and wiping her face, trying to rid it of the soot that had covered it when she had entered the stable.
Entering the stables had terrified her, and yet she had acted without thinking, focused on one purpose only — saving the horses. She hadn’t realized how affected Levi had been until she had come out the other side.
Levi was now standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, so Siena walked over to the bed and sat down on the end of it before patting the mattress beside her.
“Come sit,” she said, although he didn’t move. “Please?” she added, and finally, with a terse nod, he did, the limp on his left side obvious.
“Did you hurt yourself when you prevented the horse from hitting me?” she asked, and his lips drew tightly together. She had thought the big horse was going to knock her over with one of those large hooves of his when he had risen up in panic, but then Levi had saved her. Again.
“I’m fine.”
“You do not always have to be fine, you know,” she said, to which he gave a snort of derision.
“Oh, I am far from fine. I am always far from fine. That is the very problem.”
He said it with such passion that Siena knew she should be upset, but she had a feeling that it had nothing to do with her. Rather, it was emotion he was finally releasing.
She leaned in toward him, watching his expression.
“Levi, what happened?”
