Claiming the Forbidden Bride Read Online Free PDF

months.
    If that were true…
    He raised his right hand to touch his face. Clean-shaven. Which must mean he’d been here—wherever here was—only a short time.
    His gaze came back to the table. A measuring cup and a small medicine bottle stood near its edge.
    A memory swam to the surface of his consciousness. A pair of long, slender fingers had poured out a measure of the liquid the bottle contained. Then a hand had slipped behind his head, raising it enough to allow him to swallow the dose. He tried desperately to retrieve the image of the face of the person who had administered the medication, but the only thing he could remember after that was the same searing pain he had experienced a few minutes ago.
    He closed his eyes, releasing the breath he’d been holding in a long, slow sigh. Something moved against his leg. He opened his eyes to see what and realized gratefully that the pain in his head was less than before.
    A little girl, perhaps four or five, stood beside his bed. Her eyes, the exact colour of the hyacinths that bloomed in his sister-in-law’s garden, were surrounded by long, nearly colourless lashes. In contrast, the unbound hair that framed her face seemed almost golden in the candlelight.
    When she saw that his eyes were open, the child’s mouth rounded into an O of surprise. Clearly his visitor hadn’t expected him to be awake. Which made him wonder how many times she’d stood at his bedside as he slept.
    â€˜â€™Lo.’ His voice was little more than a croak, which made him remember his thirst.
    The Cupid’s bow lips rounded even more. Then the child whirled and disappeared from his sight.
    Rhys resisted the urge to follow her movement, remembering what that curiosity might cost him. Instead, he allowed his eyelids to fall once more.
    Although there had been no physical activity during this brief period of wakefulness, he was aware of an almostterrifying sense of fatigue. Maybe he’d been wrong about the fever. Maybe someone had shaved him. Or maybe…
    Suddenly, trying to piece together what might have happened became too difficult. And far less important than the sleep that again claimed him.

Chapter Three
    â€˜W ake up, chavi .’
    At the childhood term of endearment her grandmother still used for her, Nadya opened her eyes to find the old woman bending over the bed. Her first thought was that something had happened to her patient.
    â€˜Is his fever up?’
    â€˜No, no. That one’s fine.’
    â€˜Then why aren’t you with the gaujo ? You promised you’d watch him.’
    â€˜Angel is watching him.’
    â€˜Angel?’ Nadya struggled to clear the cobwebs from her brain as she sat up. She had no idea how long she’d been asleep. All she knew with any certainty was that it hadn’t been nearly long enough. ‘I don’t understand.’
    â€˜Stephano’s back. I thought you would want to know.’
    Although he was the Rom Baro , titular head of their kumpania , her half-brother had spent most of this year away from camp. And since Nadya had no doubt what his feelings would be about the Englishman she was caring for, to have Stephano unexpectedly show up now,with her patient on the verge of recovery, seemed the height of irony.
    â€˜Have you told him about the gaujo ?’
    Nadya knew that if Magda hadn’t, she soon would. The old woman shared a bond with her grandson stronger even than that between the two of them.
    â€˜He’s just arrived. I came to let you know while the others are welcoming him home.’
    â€˜Someone’s bound to tell him.’
    â€˜Of course they will, chavi . It’s his right to be told what has gone on here in his absence.’
    â€˜That should take a while,’ Nadya said bitterly.
    She flung her covers off and then ran her fingers through her hair as she tried to think. Her reasons for succouring her daughter’s rescuer were valid, but