Page 44 of Raven's Rise
He shook his head, evidently too tired for jokes now. “The room is safe enough. No one can get in that window without making a lot of noise, and there’s no other door but the one to the corridor.”
“It doesn’t have a lock,” she pointed out, feeling a bit nervous.
“I’m the lock,” Rafe said simply.
“What do you mean? You can’t stand watch all night.”
“No, I can’t. But I can sleep in front of the door. No one can open it without waking me.”
“Oh.” Angelet looked everywhere but him. “You intend to sleep in here?”
“It’s the best way to keep you safe,” he said.
“From everyone but you.”
“Angelet, if I come to your bed, it will be because you ask me to and for no other reason.” Rafe stood up then, and she mirrored his movement. “Do you believe me?”
“I…do. And I’mnotasking,” she added hastily.
“Just as well that I’m needed as a bulwark then,” he said with a wry smile. “You’ll have to make do with dreaming about me.”
“I do not dream about you!” she said, a statement that was not entirely true. She had daydreamed about him, and specifically what it would be like to spend a night, or two, with him. She missed being touched, being held. Before Rafe came into her life, she’d been able to more or less deny the urge. But ever since he first smiled at her, she recalled just how lonely she’d been over the past several years.
“What a shame. You should try…it would be an improvement over your usual visions of heaven.”
“You’re insufferable,” Angelet said, and turned back toward the bed. She pulled off a pillow and a woolen blanket, pushing them into Rafe’s arms. “Here, these are for you. How can you sleep on a hard floor?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time. I’ll manage.” He looked her over. “Now, my lady, you should go to bed yourself. You’ve had a long day, and you need rest.”
Angelet washed her face in the basin provided, and carefully removed her overskirt, feeling as shy as if she were taking all her clothing off, even though she still wore a shift. But Rafe didn’t seem to be paying attention, for he was at the brazier once again, adding fuel to keep the room warm through the night.
She lay down and pulled the remaining blanket up. A wave of fatigue rolled over her, and she heaved a sigh she didn’t know she was holding in.
Rafe let out a low laugh. “So you are tired.”
“Exhausted,” she admitted. She curled up on her side. “I’ll never learn how to live like this, traveling for miles day after day.”
“You shouldn’t have to deal with it for very long, my lady. I’ll get you to a safe location…once we decide where the danger is coming from.”
She lay awake for a while, the darkness only broken by the dull glow from the embers. Rafe was little more than a dark shape by the door.
“Rafe?”
“Yes?” He didn’t sound nearly as tired as she was, but he must be yearning for sleep.
“I just thought of something. We could shove the whole bed in front of the door. Then no one could open it.”
“True. But then you would also have no escape if there was a fire…or if I turned out to be an untrustworthy rogue and murderer. You need to have a path of retreat.”
She asked, “Do you always think of things in that way, as if it’s a war?”
“When people are trying to kill me, yes.”
“And here I’d have trapped us both.”
“It’s not your duty to think of those things, Angelet. That’s why I’m around. I’ll plan the attacks and the escapes and the marches.”
“What do I do?” she asked.
