What she had admitted about her mother … She had only told Hadiza upon entering the Torre. No one else. She had told no one else, not since she’d staggered onto her mother’s cousin’s farm and begged for sanctuary and shelter.She wondered how long his own story had been locked in his chest.“Let me order food first,” Matilda decided. She glanced toward the wood screen shielding the bathing room from sight, then down at her blood-crusted chest and dress. “While we wait … I might beg to use your bath. And borrow a set of your clothes.”Leonard was still watching her with that focused, calm face. A different one from any she’d seen on him before. As if in shaving off some of that darkness, it had revealed this facet beneath.This man she had not yet met.She wasn’t sure what to do with it. With him.“Take whatever you want,” Leonard told her, his voice low—rough.Matilda was light-headed when she crawled off the bed, taboss his ruined shirt with her, and hurried for the bathing cha

Leonard kept moving his toes long after Matilda had left. He wriggled them inside his boots, not quite feeling them, but just enough to know they were moving.However Matilda had done it …He didn’t tell Nasri when she returned before dinner, no sign of the Valg to report. And he’d only quietly explained that he was maboss enough progress with Matilda that he’d like to put off tomorrow’s visit to her family until another day.She’d seemed a tad crestfallen, but had agreed, that cool mask slipping back over her face within a few blinks.He kissed her when she’d walked by to dress for dinner.He’d grabbed her by the wrist and tugged her down, and kissed her once.Brief—but thorough.She’d been surprised enough that by the time he’d pulled away, she hadn’t so much as laid a hand on him.“Get ready,” he told her, motioning to her room.With a backward glance at him, a half smile on her mouth, Nasri obeyed.Leonard stared after her for a few minutes, shifting his toes in his boots.

With most of the city down by the docks for the sunrise ceremony to honor Tehome, the streets were quiet. Leonard supposed only the sickest would be bedbound today, which was why, when they approached a slender house on a sunny, dusty street, he wasn’t at all surprised to be greeted by violent coughing before they’d even reached the door.Well, before Matilda had even reached the door. Without the chair, he’d remain atop the horse, but Matilda didn’t so much as comment on it as she dismounted, tied her mare to the hitching post down the street, and strode for the house. He kept shifting his toes every so often—as much as he could manage within the boots. The movement alone, he knew, was a gift, but it required more concentration than he’d expected; more energy, too.Leonard was still flexing them when an elderly woman opened the house door, sighing to see Matilda and speaboss in very slow Halha. For Matilda to understand, apparently, because the healer replied in the language a

Nasri blinked at Hassan .The princess smiled, cold as a snake, and clarified, “It is not polite to only sit with your companion. We should have separated you two before now.”Nasri glanced to him. Everyone watched. Leonard had no idea—absolutely none—what to say. Matilda seemed inclined to melt into the green marble floor.Sartaq cleared his throat. “Join me here, Captain Faliq.”Nasri stood quickly, and Hassan beamed up at her. The princess patted the back of the seat Nasri had vacated and crooned to Matilda , lingering a few feet away, “You sit here. In case you are needed.”Matilda shot Leonard a look that might have been considered pleading, but he kept his face neutral and offered a close-lipped smile.Nasri found her seat beside Sartaq, who had asked a vizier to move down the table, and Hassan , satisfied that the adjustments had been done to her liboss , deemed that her own usual seats were not to her taste and kicked out two viziers down by Arghun. The second seat w

"I have always known there was something ahout your corporation that looks lucrative." One of the investors mentioned, shaking hands with Leonard and Matilda .It was barely three days after they had gotten married and Leonard had informed her about a meeting with some investors. Matilda didn't care about any of his movement, she had been making plans on her revenge tour and she couldn't wait to execute it."I guess you are the lucky charm I needed to secure this contract after all." Leonard mentioned, after the meeting, while heading back to their penthouse."Yeah I guess ...." Matilda mentioy, barely paying attention to what he has to say."Why do you always act cold around me?" Leonard asked, having observed her demeanor."What do you mean act cold towards you? I never prayed to be here in the first place." Matilda replied."I don't care girl. Your father signed you off to me and you will remain mine." Matilda wa about to respond, when their car would eventually break dow