Page 84 of The Last Necromancer
"Were you any good?" Seth asked.
"Adequate." I shot Fitzroy a reassuring smile. "The wound is straight. Unless you want me to embroider Home Sweet Home, I can manage."
Gus laughed so hard his eyes watered. Seth couldn't hold back his grin either, until Fitzroy's glare withered it.
"Stand still and keep your arm out of the way," I told him.
Gus handed me a pair of sterilized gloves and I threaded the needle. Despite my bravado, I was nervous. Stitching a sampler was one thing, a human being entirely another. I didn't want Fitzroy to see my apprehension, however, and managed to steady my shaking hand enough to proceed, under his guidance. He calmly informed me how deep I ought to go and how wide apart the stitches needed to be. It was over in a few minutes. He hadn't winced, flinched, groaned or hissed once. I wasn't sure he felt pain at all.
"Where did you pick up your medical knowledge?" I asked as I handed the needle back to Gus.
"A surgeon taught me," Fitzroy said.
"Your lessons included surgery?"
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Seth shaking his head at me in warning. I frowned at him, but Fitzroy caught it and arched a brow. Seth cleared his throat and followed Gus out of the room.
"My education was more varied than a regular student's," Fitzroy said.
"Why?"
"So that I could fulfill this role," he said matter-of-factly. "It's been my destiny since birth. The ministry is new, but its origins are ancient. I was chosen early as a future leader."
"At birth," I muttered.
"Before."
I laughed, then realized he was serious. "How could you have been chosen before your birth?"
"It happens." He picked up the gauze and placed it over his wound. "The bandage, Charlie."
If he had been chosen before birth, that implied there was something special about his parents. Perhaps a combination of characteristics that were deemed important in a future leader of the ministry. I wanted to ask, but he seemed to not want to talk about it. I gave up, for now, but I intended to find out more about his parents and childhood. It was thoroughly intriguing. He was intriguing.
I wrapped the bandage around his torso. It brought me close to him, my face just below his shoulder height. If I leaned a few inches forward, I could kiss him. I dared not look up into his face, but staring at the hollow of his throat did nothing to settle the blood raging through my body. Where before my ministrations had been clinical, now they were anything but. Every part of me was aware of him and how close we stood; how easy it would be to close the gap between us, tilt my head, and receive his kiss.
As I wrapped the bandage around him, my fingers brushed the smooth skin of his back and sides. I slowed, not wanting the connection to end. Wanting only to touch him more, to feel the muscles twitch with restrained desire, the thud of his pulse, the heat of his skin.
He wanted those things too. I could sense it, rather than see it or feel it. It was in the way he didn't move when I fastened the bandage in place, and how he lowered his face to my hair and drew in a deep breath.
With my hands still resting over the bandage, I dared to glance up at him. His eyes were closed, his jaw slack, making his face a little softer and even more handsome. I wanted to capture him in that moment, so I lifted my hand and cupped his cheek.
His eyes flew open and his face hardened. He turned away.
"Lincoln," I whispered.
He gathered up his ruined, bloody clothes. "Mr. Fitzroy," he snapped. "Or sir."
I stepped back as if he'd pushed me. "I—I thought—"
"You thought wrong." He stalked into the adjoining bedroom but didn't shut the door. He emerged a few moments later wearing a clean shirt. If I'd thought his jaw was rigid before, now it was positively rock-hard. His eyes were as black and bleak as I'd ever seen them, and his gaze didn't waver from mine. "I've decided. You can't stay here."
"Wh—what?" He was talking too fast. My head was still fuzzy from desire and his brutal rejection.
"When Frankenstein is caught, you'll go to live with Lady Harcourt."
He might as well have slapped me. My head was suddenly clear again. "No! You said I don't have to live with her if I didn't want to."
"I've changed my mind. It's the best place for you."
