I closed my eyes.
“There,” he whispered.
When I opened my eyes, he was crouched low close beside the bed so he was all I could see.
“How long’s he been doin’ this to you?” he inquired softly.
“That’s hardly your business,” I replied, though I couldn’t infuse even a small measure of condescension in my voice after the care he’d taken of me.
His glance slid in the direction of my back before it came again to me.
“He got that far, no one could take that shit without passing out. Unless they had practice,” he remarked.
He was correct.
I didn’t answer.
He lifted a hand, used the tip of a finger to slide my hair away from my temple and my cheek as he spoke.
“You’re a grown woman, Frannie. You don’t have to take that. Why didn’t you put a stop to it? Hell, why’d you go down there at all?”
That, I answered.
“Because my brother wouldn’t be able to take it.”
There was a change in his gaze. A glittering hardness that I found fascinating.
And that hard was now in his tone when he declared, “You are not one fuckin’ thing like they think you are, are you?”
“I’m exactly what they think I am,” I retorted.
“Keep tellin’ yourself that, babe. See you believe it. But it’s utter bullshit,” he returned.
Before I could get in a rebuttal, there was a knock at the door.
I watched Noc straighten from his crouch, move quickly and with masculine fluidity to the door and open it.
A palace maid was beyond it.
Her eyes flicked to me and I drew breath in through my nostrils at the indignity of my position and her attention.
Damned, bloody Noc.
“I need towels, please,” Noc stated. “Lots of them. Hot water. Mild soap. You got a bad bottle of whiskey around, bring that too. If you don’t, bring a good one. And one of those drinks that puts you to sleep. Her girl was sent for a doctor,” Noc went on, doing this jerking his head back to indicate me. “If you could find out where he is and have him come to us as soon as he can, that’d be awesome.”
The maid nodded and dashed away even though I suspected there were several things he said that she didn’t understand.
He closed the door and turned to me.
When he again got close and hunkered beside me, I tried to take a different tack.
“It would mean a good deal to me, Noc, if you were to return to Frey and ascertain what’s happening with my father, my mother and my brother.”
“I’ll do that, once the doc’s here and you’re good.”
“Noc—” I began to protest but he again leaned closer.
“Frey know you got magic?”
Uncharacteristically, I allowed my eyes to slide away.
“Frannie,” he called.
My eyes slid back and I snapped, “Cease calling me this.”
He ignored my demand and asserted, “I gotta know. You don’t want me to say anything, I gotta know.”
I felt my lips part in surprise at the fact that he’d just shared he’d keep my secret.
“And if your dad says shit, I gotta be on the ball with that too,” he carried on.
Oh balls.
I should have thought of that.
“I don’t practice,” I told him swiftly, lifting my head slightly but lowering it when the numbness in my back disappeared and fire shot through my mutilated flesh. “I don’t ever use it. I just…inherited it from my mother. She uses it.”
Noc nodded. “Gotcha.”
“You must believe me, Noc, for I’m telling the truth,” for some reason I persevered. “When I was young, I experimented with it. But seeing what she did, how she used hers.” I shook my head. “I didn’t want a thing to do with it.”
He lifted a hand and cupped my cheek, saying comfortingly, “I said gotcha, baby. That means I get you. I understand you. It’s all good. I got your back. Okay? You get that?”
I wasn’t sure but I thought I did, therefore I gave a slight nod.
“Now, relax for me, yeah? I’m gonna go get another towel, take this one off, change it.” Even as his mouth got tight, his voice turned into a mutter while his attention wandered to my back. “Blood’s soaked this one through.”
Humiliation belatedly stole through me, and I closed my eyes against the sight of his fine-looking face set with anger that warred with concern.
“You good with that, Frannie?” he asked.
This name, it was common. I detested it.
I didn’t say that.
I sighed, kept my eyes closed and replied, “Whatever you wish to do, Noc.”
“Babe,” he said.
I lay there, unmoving.
“Sweetheart, look at me.”
I didn’t wish to but felt it would be a show of weakness if I didn’t.
Therefore I did.
“Gonna take care of you,” he promised, the look in his eyes now one of warmth and determination. “Get you back to fit. And I’m gonna see he’s taken care of too. Do you believe me?”
I wished to do that.
But that would not happen.
“He’s a member of a powerful House, Noc. You may not understand this but that means something. He’s detested by Aurora, as he was by Atticus, for reasons I don’t know but it wasn’t surprising. The king and queen felt even less for my mother. They do not consort with the royals and only allowed Kristian and I to do so when we were younger through my uncle, Frey’s father. Regardless of that, his position, and hers, gives them leeway. And further, I went to him uncoerced.”