Staying in a tiny house with Theo was exactly as awkward as I thought it would be. I took my turn in the privy, trying to forget that he was on the other side of the door.
When I emerged, my eyes went immediately to the single small bed.
“I’ll sleep on the floor, near the fire,” Theo said quickly, not looking at me.
I nodded because I sure as hell didn’t want to sleep on the floor. Nor did I want to sleep in this stiff, uncomfortable dress. As terrible as the nightgowns here were, at least they didn’t have stiff corset boning that dug into my ribcage.
This dress would probably suffocate me in my sleep.
Stars.
I wondered briefly if Sir Iiro was intentionally making my life as uncomfortable as possible, but it was more likely he had simply given the matter no thought at all. After all, it didn’t directly affect him.
I sighed, poking my head outside. “Could one of you please ask Lady Inessa to come…assist me?” I tried to put it delicately.
They both turned to raise their eyebrows at me, and I suppressed an eye roll. Of course, they weren’t going to listen to me. Before I could ask, Theo was at my back, barking something in Socairan.
One of the guards murmured what might have been an apology, taking off for the house next door. When he returned moments later, though, his expression was smug.
“The Duchess declines, stating that she has already dressed for bed.”
I shut the door with more force than necessary, turning back to Theo.
“I’m going to need some help undoing my dress.” I tried to speak without inflection, but even I heard the discomfort in my tone.
His eyes shot down to mine.
“Why are you taking your dress off?” he asked a little too loudly.
Fantastic. Now the guards would think I was putting on a show in here.
“I can’t very well sleep in it.”
“You can’t very well sleep out of it when we’re—both in here.”
My fingers went to massage the bridge of my nose. “I’m sure Venla packed a nightgown in my trunk, and your brother was the one who insisted on her staying behind,” I hissed.
Theo looked pointedly away, swallowing back what I assumed was another wave of aggravation.
“I told you, we are only allowed to bring forty people. And since you’re a walking disaster who stands out like a literal flame, we needed every one of those men for our guard.”
My lips parted in offense. “If you had given me back my sword, we could have done with one less. Then Venla would be here, unlacing my dress. But I didn’t have a choice in coming here, in who we brought, in really anything since the stars-blasted tunnels closed in.” I spread my hands out, a rare bit of frustration seeping into my tone. “What I do have a choice in is whether or not I sleep in this dress, and I have chosen not to.”
His mouth opened like he was going to respond, but he clamped it shut again. “Fine,” he snapped. “Turn around.”
“Thank you,” I said primly, spinning with a feigned casual air.
But there was nothing casual about a man undressing me, however reluctantly. I heard rather than saw him draw closer, a shuffling of fabric at my back that let me know he was moving nearer.
I tried to brace myself to have no reaction, but the moment his fingers brushed my neck, I knew I should have taken my chances with suffocation by corset.
It would have been better than the tension that thrummed between us, the heat that spread from every point of contact even as I silently ordered it not to.
Slowly, he untied the top of the ribbon. A shiver went down my spine, and he stilled.
“It’s chilly in here,” I lied. I was the furthest thing from cold.
“I’ll add more kindling to the fire,” he offered.
His voice was closer than I expected it to be, his breath caressing the top of my ear.
He seemed to be working very, very hard not to touch me, but it was impossible to loosen the ribbons without hooking a finger underneath them. My heartbeat was suddenly too loud in the silent room, thundering at a volume I was sure he could hear.
After a moment, I realized I didn’t feel any motion. He was finished with my dress, but he didn’t move, didn’t speak. Once again, lightning crackled between us, the air vibrating with whatever had passed in this single span of time.
I reminded myself that he was escorting me to my possible demise, that he was Socairan and my enemy and a bit of a pompous arse clown to boot.
But my body didn’t know those things. It didn’t care.
Abruptly, he backed away, and the temperature dropped by several degrees in the wake of his presence.
“Will that suffice?” His voice was raw, his tone devoid of its usual condescension.
I nodded, not quite trusting my voice.
Theo went to add kindling to the fire while I tucked myself into bed, unstrapping my dagger and sheath from my thigh and tucking it under my pillow. Tension filled the room once more, but this time it was decidedly more awkward. I was the one to break it.
“How long until we reach the Summit?” I asked.
“No more than five days, if the weather holds,” he answered, laying out his blanket on the floor. “Then they will deliberate for eight days.”
He sounded relieved to be talking about something so innocuous, but I was doing math in my head.
I would turn eighteen that final day. A turning point in my life that I would reach hundreds of miles away from my family. Or possibly the day I died. Not wanting to dwell on that, I moved on.
“Have you been to one before?”
“Once,” he answered. “They are uncommon. As I said, the clans exist independent of one another. Summits are only for the few things that concern all of us.”
“Your brother said there were two other things that called for a Summit. What else could possibly concern all of you, aside from neighboring royalty illegally purchasing overpriced liquor?” I injected a healthy dose of sarcasm into my tone.
“Not much. Threats to the entire country, which really only come from your people. If the safety of any of the clan wives is violated, and if there’s a blood debt owed between one clan and another.”
“What if the safety of the clan husbands is violated?” I asked.
Theo barked out a quick laugh, quickly stifling it. “There are conflicts between the clans sometimes, but every man here is trained for the army. That’s an expected casualty. It is the duty and honor of an entire clan to protect their duchess.”
“Indeed.”
Another reminder of why whatever traitorous feelings my body had were just those. It wasn’t a bad thing to be protected or cherished, but I wasn’t sure I would ever get used to not being seen or heard.
It was more clear by the hour that this was not a place for a girl from Lochlann.
