The Whispering Night Read Online Free PDF Page B

idea how long she'd been in the
twilight between thought and sleep.  She knew it was le Mon before she even saw
him. When he finally emerged from the darkness, her heart leapt into her
throat.
    "You...," she
gasped, patting her chest to restart her heart. "How did you get in
here?"
    He came to a halt, a
respectful distance away. "Forgive me for startling you. But when your
father told me you were feeling ill, I knew it was not the truth."
    "You didn't answer
my question."
    "What
question?"
    "How did you get in
here?"
    His blue eyes twinkled
and he gestured at the door. Derica, calming somewhat after her initial fright,
slowly shook her head. "That door was locked. I bolted it myself."
    "I did not say I
came through the door."
    "But you pointed to
it."
    "I did not. I
merely pointed to the obvious."
    She was becoming
irritated. "The obvious door? You're not making any sense."
    He remained cool, almost
amused. "Does it matter how I got in? I would say that you should be more
concerned as to why I am here."
    Derica was still looking
over at the door, almost hidden in the darkness. There was a lancet window near
it, the oilcloth partially peeled back. It took her a moment to realize that
the window was what Garren had meant. Her eyes widened.
    "Do you mean to
tell me that you came in through the window?" she was astonished. "I
am four stories up. How in God's name did you climb up the side of the
keep?"
    He smiled faintly. 
"I came to apologize if I said something to upset you when we met on the
battlements. Whatever it was, I did not mean to. I sensed that you were
perturbed when you left, and then when you did not appear at sup, I knew I must
have offended you."
    She eyed him. "Are
you always so evasive?"
    "What do you
mean?"
    "I want to know how
you came in through the window, and you want to discuss some silly conversation
we had on the battlements."
    "It wasn't a silly
conversation at all, I assure you. It was the first true conversation you and I
have had, and I suppose I conducted it badly."
    Derica cocked an
eyebrow.  She was coming to suspect he was not going to tell her how he came in
through the window.  But she was off-guard at his appearance and had no desire
to continue a conversation with him.
    "My father will
throw you in the vault if he finds you in here," she said. "You'd
better leave the way you came so no one will see you."
    Garren stood there,
watching the light reflect off her features. He also knew it was dangerous for
him to be here, but for the duration of sup he had been seized with the
determination to see her.  A small seed of confusion was glowing somewhere in
his mind, something that he suspected at some point would make it difficult for
him to keep his mind on his mission unless he kept it in check.  Maybe if he
could talk to her, to find out just how spoiled and petty she was, he could
learn to dislike her. He needed to find a reason to dislike her in order to
maintain his focus.
    He took a couple of slow
steps, moving towards the other chair in the chamber and being very careful not
to appear threatening.
    "You have no
interest in me, my lady," he commented quietly.
    "I beg your
pardon?"
    He took the chair,
lowering his big body. "I said, you have no interest in me. This marriage
is as much a duty to you as it is to me."
    He was a safe enough
distance away and Derica was feeling more composed, enough so that she found
herself responding to him.
    "Unless a young
woman is intended for the convent, it is expected she would wed," she
replied. "I have no desire to become a nun or an old maid."
    "But you were
disturbed by my observation that one of marriage's primary purposes is to
produce heirs."
    Derica shrugged, toying
with the ends of her hair. "Sometimes the truth is disturbing."
    "It is. But why
should the production of a child disturb you? All women want children, do they
not?"
    "My mother died
giving birth to me."
    "I see,"
Garren understood. "Then childbirth frightens you."
    Derica looked