Daughter of Time: A Time Travel Romance Read Online Free PDF

and it
wasn’t because I was hungry. A rushing in my ears threatened to
overwhelm me and all I could think was oh my God; oh my God; oh
my God. My worst fears were abruptly out in the open. I could
only gape at Llywelyn without trying to contradict him, as if my
mind had gotten hung up in overdrive and was revving with the
clutch out and nowhere to go. He seemed so utterly unconcerned,
sitting as he was with one ankle resting on the opposite knee, his
hands folded across his chest. What was I going to do?
    The soldier from the hallway returned with
food and drink. I stared at him blindly while Llywelyn indicated
that he should set the tray on the table beside the bed. Llywelyn
moved the candle to the mantelpiece above the fire to give him
room.
    When the man left, Llywelyn gestured to the
food. “It isn’t much, but should tide us over until morning.”
    I nodded, stone-faced, the lump in my throat
preventing me from speaking. Llywelyn poured two glasses of wine
from the carafe and handed one to me before taking the second for
himself. I didn’t want to drink it, not only because I was afraid
to take anything from him, but because I normally didn’t drink wine
at all. It had never seemed like a good idea with Trev
around—either because it would tempt him or because I didn’t dare
lose control over myself. I also wouldn’t be twenty-one until
April.
    I took the cup but simply sat on the bed
with it in my hand. Llywelyn raised his eyebrows at me then lifted
the cup as if in a toast and took a sip. “There’s no poison in it,
if that’s what you’re afraid of.”
    Under his curious gaze, I didn’t dare refuse
it any longer, even as I cursed myself for being so passive. I took
a sip. It tasted bitter on my tongue—far more than the cheap, sweet
wine Mom usually drank. I set the cup on the table and Llywelyn
handed me a hunk of cheese and bread he’d cut with his belt knife.
I drank and ate while Llywelyn watched. He seemed so believable in his stillness. He took the moment when my
mouth was full of food to begin asking the questions he’d said he
wouldn’t earlier.
    “Who’s Anna’s father?”
    I took a swig of wine and swallowed hard.
“He’s dead,” I said, glad that in this at least I could tell the
truth.
    Llywelyn nodded, accepting my words at face
value. “And your father?”
    “He’s dead too,” I said.
    Llywelyn made a ‘tsk’ noise through his
teeth. “I was asking their names.” I didn’t respond and he began
work on cutting up a small apple. “My man included the apple only
after I told him that you possessed all your teeth.”
    His words were so incongruous to the fear
I’d been feeling, I choked on the next sip and barely stopped
myself from spewing the wine across the floor. I coughed and then
found hysterical laughter bubbling up in my throat. I could barely
see him through streaming eyes as I fought it back. His mouth
quirked as he started to smile too, though I didn’t think he knew
he’d made a joke at first—it probably hadn’t been a joke to him.
Then he laughed outright.
    I took his half-second of inattention to
lunge for the knife.
    I rammed my shoulder into his arm and
overbalanced him, getting my hand on his knife as he released it in
surprise. I had intended to take the knife from him and hold him
off with it, but instead, he spun with me, grabbing my arm as he
went down and pulling me off balance too. I fell sideways, stunning
myself by landing hard on my left hip and then clonking my head on
the floor, my legs tangled up in my long nightgown. Llywelyn
recovered more quickly than I and threw himself on top of me,
pinioning each of my wrists to the floor with his big hands, the
knife skittering away from me into a corner of the room.
    He loomed over me, his nose only inches from
mine and the full weight of his body resting on my torso, holding
me down. “Who sent you?” he hissed into my face. “What devil’s
bargain did you make?”
    I stared up at him, my vision