horrible.
Helena smoothed Alex’s nightshirt over his shoulders. “I have nightmares sometimes, too.”
He peeked up at her. “What about?”
Frederick Cole’s handsome face flashed through her mind. Blue eyes, startling in their contrast to his near-black curls.
“Monsters. Same as you. But I know they cannot hurt me.”
“Because they are no’ real.”
In her case they were, but she smiled anyway.
“I don’ want to dream of my monster again.” Alex’s breath was shuddering and deep, a good sign he had cried himself out.
The sensation she’d experienced in the kirk—of peace and love and yearning—swelled in her bosom, and she cupped Alex’s damp cheek with her hand. “I’d pay all the gold and silver I possess to never dream of my monster again, either, and to save you from yours.”
Fabric rustled, and she turned to check Callum, but the boy slept on in his bed. Instead, her husband stood against the doorjamb, watching her.
Now it was her turn to cover her mouth with her hand.
* * *
John pulled the nursery door shut as softly as he could, glad for Helena’s candle to illuminate the hall. “I think Alex should rest well enough now.” The poor laddie had been drowsy when they left, with the comfort of Iona curling on the coverlet at his feet.
“I hope so.” She held her candle steady, but tension rolled from her. After their awkward parting earlier tonight, it was little wonder.
Mayhap her unease also had to do with the monster she told Alex she dreamed of, but he couldn’t ask her about that. Not now, perhaps not ever. Still, he wouldn’t ignore the opportunity to get back on even footing with her. “Would you care to join me for a brief moment? I was working in the library, and the fire is still warm in the grate.”
The strain eased from her mouth. “I was on my way to the library when I heard Alex.”
He released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. After leading her to the library, he indicated his favorite pair of wing chairs beside the fire, where his nightly cup of tea sat, cold and unfinished beside today’s letter from his friend Lord Carvey.
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