Page 74 of The Secret of the Three Fates
“Ruan?”
Perhaps he’d come to make sure I was safe. But I’d locked my door and Ruan didn’t know one end of a lockpick from the other.
The cold air pricked my skin as I rose from the tub, my voice cracking. “You know this isn’t amusing.”
Silence.
Had whoever shot me come to finish the job? If so, I wasn’t about to die naked. I grabbed a thin towel, wrapping it around myself, and stepped out from behind the screen. The key remained in the lock as it had been when I came in. The door to Mr. Owen’s room, however, was now wide open.
I slipped open the drawer on my dressing table for Mr. Owen’s revolver, when I realized one terrible thing.
The ring was missing.
I’d set it on the dressing table, not ten steps from where I’d been submerged in the tub. My breath came in short bursts. Someone had been in here with me—waiting… watching for the moment to take it.
I threw a clean chemise over my damp skin, wrapping myself in Mr. Owen’s dressing gown—one I’d kept for myself—and thrust the gun into the pocket, before entering the next room.
Empty.
Heart thundering in my chest, I darted out into the hallway looking down the corridor, left then right.
Empty.
Fool! Fool! Fool!What was I thinking? I should have allowed Ruan to come with me, for no other reason than to keep the ring secure. But no—my fear of appearing weak had caused me to lose the best clue we had.
Barefoot, I ran down the hall to Ruan’s room, pounding on his door with a flat palm. I didn’t care if I woke the whole damn castle. There was a thief here. A murdereranda thief. I shivered as the damp chemise clung to my skin.
The door flew open and Ruan quickly took me in, from my dripping hair to my bare feet, and grabbed me with his left arm, tugging me into the room and slamming the door behind us.
He held me against his chest as if he could will away whatever bothered me if he only held me tight enough. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
My breath evened as I listened to the slowness of his heart.
After several moments he stepped back wordlessly, taking my face in his one hand. A flurry of emotions crossed his face. Frustration. Fear. Anger.
But not at me.
He knew.
Somehow, he knew without me uttering a single word that something had gone terribly wrong. “You have to tell me, Ruby. You must talk to me.”
I opened my mouth and a sob came out. Good God, why was I being such a ninny tonight? It was only a stolen ring. I’d already found the body, and whatever Mariah had been hiding was long gone. The ring didn’t evenmatteranymore and yet the tears would not stop. I sank down into a chair by the fire and buried my face in my hands.
I was broken and couldn’t even articulatewhyI was upset.
The floor creaked as he stooped down before me, brushing my wet hair back from my face with a rough hand. “Are you harmed? Has someone hurt you? Touched you?” His voice was achingly tender. It made me want to scream.
I squeezed my eyes shut, shaking my head, and the words came out in a rush. “The ring is gone.”
His shoulders sagged in relief and he whispered something in Cornish, rocking back on his heels. It was in that moment I realized he was wearing only his trousers. I must have interrupted him while he was changing his bandage as the red wound in his shoulder was completely exposed—Andrew’s stitches on fine display. The air around us was thick with the scent of yarrow and calendula.
Ruan brushed the tears from my cheek, his roughened fingers still vaguely sticky from the medicine he’d been applying and my beleaguered heart cracked fully open.
“I can’t stop crying.”
“There’s no shame in it.” He was close to me now. Close enough his green scent invaded every pore of my body, pushing away the memories of the dead woman and replacing them with him.
“I was in the bath. They… they waited until I was submergedand—” I shook my head. I didn’t want to speak of it. Didn’t want to think on it.
