Missing Lily (Tales of Dalthia) (32 page)

He kissed the left side of my mouth and then the right, and I leaned into him as his lips settled against mine.
 
His kisses started slow and gentle but grew in intensity as I learned to return them. I wanted to stay in this moment, in this place. I wanted to be here forever.

“Isn’t that lovely.”

The moment was shattered by Tobias’s words.

Our heads whipped in the direction of his abrasive voice and found him lounging against a tree some twenty paces away. Rhys stepped in front of me and I latched onto his arm. I had felt warm and secure not two seconds ago, but Tobias’s presence doused me like freezing water.

“Leave, Tobias.” Rhys’s voice was tight.

Tobias pushed away from the tree and ambled toward us, gesturing broadly. “I am only taking a stroll in the morning air.”

“As lord of these lands, I am telling you to get off.” The fury was barely controlled.

Tobias’s eyes went wide and wild. “As lord over the land?” His whisper was loud and harsh as he walked deliberately forward. “How
dare
you brandish your title at me!” He wrenched a sword and a knife from his waist, and my hands clutched desperately at Rhys’s arm.

“Tobias,” Rhys warned, unsheathing his own blade.

“Your
undeserved
title!” Tobias screamed, flailing his arms with such erratic movements that I thought surely he would cut himself. The look in his eyes terrified me. How had we not seen this danger until now? His anger was all-consuming, raging out of control as he stalked toward us.

“Don’t do this, Tobias!” Rhys moved steadily toward his brother, leaving me standing alone and petrified.

“You
chose
this, Rhys!” he screamed like a petulant child. Only he was a grown man with sword and knife instead of pounding fists.

When they reached one another, weapons poised to strike, I closed my eyes, unable to watch the inevitable clash, only to have them fly open as I gasped in shock. I clutched at my ribs, where pain lanced through my side, and watched as the brothers struggled. Rhys disarmed Tobias and dropped his own sword aside, using brute force to take his brother to the ground as Tobias continued to flail and fight.

I fell to my knees, trying to breathe in and out as fire scorched my side. Something had torn my flesh, but I couldn’t bring myself to look. Pain made everything hazy.

Rhys held Tobias pinned to the ground, yelling to be heard. “Don’t make me kill you, Tobias!”
 

The air stilled and so did Tobias as he heard the desperation in his brother’s voice. “Please,” Rhys panted. “I don’t want to kill you. Please don’t make me.”
 

Tears choked his voice, his pleas shocking Tobias into silence. He lay there, his face twisted in fury, for several moments before he spat out, “Do what you must.”

Rhys yelled in frustration and shoved away from him, climbing to his feet. Tobias scrambled up and stared at his brother, a hint of confusion leaking into the mask of rage.

They stood, chests heaving, anger roiling between them until Rhys spoke. “Go.” It was a command not to be ignored.

Tobias walked backward a few paces, then whistled and turned as his horse walked out of the trees. He swung up and left without looking back.

“Rhys.” My voice was barely above a whisper, but he turned and ran back to me. He knelt and kissed me in desperation.

My cry of pain made him pull back. He looked down at my hands clutching my side, the warm blood seeping through my fingers. Horror filled his eyes.

“No!” He cradled my head and laid me down in the grass. “No. What happened? What has he done?” His panicked voice scared me more than the pain. It must have been bad. He moved my hands away and widened the hole in my dress so that he could see the wound. He pressed his hand over it to staunch the bleeding and put his other hand to my face, forcing me to focus on him. “How?” he asked, his agony mirroring my own.

I blinked rapidly, my own shallow breathing filling my ears as I whispered, “I think he threw a knife.” It was the only explanation I could fathom.

“I have to get you to the manor.” He yanked the cravat from his throat and pushed it against my side before pulling me up and into his arms. The pain of moving made me gasp in shock just before everything went dark.

***

A dull pain pulsed as I struggled through the blackness. Then the pain turned biting, piercing, and my eyes flew open as I cried out.

Rhys’s comforting weight settled over me as he kept me from sitting up, my hands caught up in his. He whispered in my ear, trying to shush my cries. “The doctor is almost finished. Be still.”

I squeezed his hands in my fists to keep from pulling away from the pain.

“Almost done,” I heard the voice of the doctor. “Hold her still now.”

Rhys reached down to hold my legs with one of his arms, and I wondered why until the pain seared through my side once more. My legs writhed reflexively, but Rhys kept me still for the most part.

“I’m so sorry.” The pain in his voice wrenched at my heart.

“That’s the last of it,” the doctor said as he dabbed at my side. The pain simmered to a searing but manageable level and tears streaked down my temples into my hair. I tried to breathe deeply, tried to gain control of my body’s reaction, but my entire being quivered in shock.

Rhys pulled a blanket over me. “I’m going to let Missy tend to you now,” he whispered before pressing his lips to my forehead and departing.
 

My faithful maid was immediately by my side, tucking the blanket around me, making sure I was as comfortable as possible.

“Missy?”

“My lady?”

“How bad is it?”
 

“The doctor thinks you’ll recover very well.”

“And Tobias?”

She studied me for a moment, probably deciding how much to say. “They’re searching for him.”

“Who?”

“Every guard but Nathaniel and Jarem.”

“And when they find him?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know, Highness.”

I nodded, knowing that his assault on me had slated his life to ruin. I did not take any satisfaction in the thought.

Chapter 23

T
HAT
AFTERNOON
, I was sitting up in bed, considering ringing for help, when my mother entered in a flurry of skirts and anxiety.

“Lylin.” She rushed over, stopping just short of hugging me. “How are you feeling?”

My smile was dim. “I’m fine.”

“Oh, dear girl.” She sat carefully beside me and laid her hand over mine, squeezing it. I could tell she wanted to wrap her arms around me but was grateful she refrained.
 
Instead she clasped her hands in front of her mouth and shook her head. “How could he do this? What kind of man—” She swallowed, unable to continue.

Seeing my mother close to tears made something inside me break. The burning in my chest was fueled by a heaving breath, which I let out in a sob. But the muscle spasm caused by crying tore at my side and I doubled over, forcing myself to take quick, shallow breaths as I tamped down my emotions. I breathed methodically through my nose as my mother placed her gentle arms around me. I focused on the feel of her fingers as they stroked my hair. I missed Rhys. He hadn’t come to see me since the doctor left. Why hadn’t he come to check on me?
 

As that festering question came to the forefront of my mind, I had to push it swiftly aside, or the crying would start again. And it just hurt too much.

As my emotions quieted, my mother finally spoke. “Has he been caught?”

“No.”

I waited for her to say something else, but she just held me and remained silent.
 

I tried to fill the quiet. “He seems to have disappeared.”

Her sigh was weary. “Your father will join the search, then.”

I heard in her voice that she viewed this as an inevitable and terrible thing. As for me, I wasn’t in a frame of mind to differentiate between the awful, the terrible, and the truly horrific. It all mingled together in a stew of horrible that made my stomach churn.

“We need to get you home,” she said as she let me go, allowing me to lean into my pillows once more. “Where is Missy? I’ll have her pack your things.” She started to rise.

“Mother,” I said, keeping my voice gentle. “I can’t go anywhere yet.”

“I need you to come home.” I could see the worry threatening to unravel my mother.

“I can barely sit up this much. My side feels like it’s on fire. I can hardly move without the pain worsening. Do you really expect me to endure the journey home?”

She let out a sigh, her shoulders slumping, her eyes filled with worry. “I just want you to be safe.”

“I’m just as safe here as I would be at home.”

“You wouldn’t have been hurt at all if you had stayed home.”

“I can’t lock myself away, even if I am a target. You taught me that.”

She took a deliberate breath. “Yes,” she admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I’m leaving you here alone. As long as you stay here, so will I.”

It was just as well. If Rhys did not feel the need to be with me at all, then I would be glad for any company. Besides, I was fairly certain that I could count on her leaving once she realized how well Rosamond would care for me, and how tiresome it would be to do nothing but sit with me all day.
 

My father came to check on me once he had the full report from the captain. He inquired after my welfare, his expression concerned, but also holding a suppressed anger. Then he was gone again, and Rhys was gone with him, without saying a word to me. They would meet up with the search party and hopefully return with Tobias in chains. They had to. Otherwise, we would all be stuck in a horrible state of in-between, always waiting, and wondering, and worrying that at any moment Tobias would be there, and that this time, he would succeed. I clutched at my side each time I thought about it and had to consciously remind myself of the guards within, without, and surrounding the manor.

My mother remained with me, refusing to leave my room and resorting to pacing by mid-afternoon. Her fluttering about made it impossible for me to rest.

“Please sit down, Mama.”

“What?” She asked. Clearly her mind had been somewhere else entirely.

“I asked you to sit down and stop worrying over me.”

“And who else do I have to worry over?”

Her teasing comment didn’t make me smile. My heart sank, realizing exactly who she should be worrying over. “Raina.” Her name slipped out on a breath of worry.

“What was that?”

“Raina.” How could I have failed to think of her?

“What about her?”

“That’s who you should be worrying over.” I put my hand to my head, caught up in my thoughts. “She may have cut all ties with Tobias, but that does not mean she has stopped caring for him. What did she do when she found out?”
 

My mother shook her head. “She hardly reacted at all. She just took it all in, said nothing, and left the room. I didn’t have time to speak with her before we came here.”

“She may very well need you more than I do right now.”

“Are you trying to convince me that everything is perfectly fine with you?”

“Of course not, but everything is not fine with Raina either.”

“Do you think their attachment was really that great?”

“Their relationship was passionate and volatile. I think it would be quite impossible for her to recover from those kinds of feelings in such a short time.”

“But she has been doing so much better. I’m certain she can handle herself, and you cannot think that I would leave you here, alone and wounded.”

“I’m not alone, Mama. And I’m not suggesting that you leave right now, but after Lord Fallon returns—”

“I’m staying to take care of you.”

Determination shone in her eyes. I knew that she often felt as if she didn’t take care of us enough when we were younger. And now that all but Lorraina and I had gone away, she seemed more and more desperate to hang on to us, to show that she could protect us. And it wasn’t that I wanted her to leave.
 

“Who’s going to take care of Lorraina?”
 

She opened her mouth to respond but couldn’t.
 

“The doctor says I should stay here for at least three weeks. The stress of riding on horseback or even in a carriage could cause more damage. Kalina is busy taking care of her baby, and Lorraina will not accept help from Ella.”

“Perhaps Marilee—”

I shook my head. “Marilee is too far, and I don’t think she’s in a position to care for anyone else right now.”

Mother pushed my hair behind my ear and tried to smile. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

I was tempted to laugh but knew it would hurt my side. “I just want someone to be there for Raina, especially when Tobias is found.” She continued to look uncertain. “I will be well taken care of, I promise. They took excellent care of me last time, remember?”