Love Me Again by Wendy M. Burge Page B

like heat from his body, that letting her go, again, was the hardest thing he had ever done in his life.
    When Varek soon followed the fleeing couple out into the night with a leisurely stride at odds with his stiff posture, Sergei sadly wondered what fates his old comrade was planning to tilt at next.
* * * *
    Robert stared at his wife's back as she sat at her dressing table, brushing her waist-length hair. She had barely spoken a word to him since they had left the ball. He swallowed his trepidation and finally broke the silence.
    “Do you want to tell me about it?”
    Their gazes met in the mirror. Her eyes were huge with shadowed secrets. After a moment she slowly shook her head. “I can't,” she whispered. “Not right now, Robert.”
    He clung tightly to his patience. He was scared as hell and she wasn't helping by not sharing this with him. He could tell she was deeply shaken by what had happened tonight. Girding himself, he asked with an unaccustomed harshness, not knowing if he really wanted to hear her answer, “Do you still love him?”
    Christina set her brush down with deliberate care, carefully avoiding his intent perusal. “No,” she lied, resentful that this was happening. She wasn't good at dissembling, no matter how important it was. She just prayed Robert wouldn't demand that she look him in the eye and repeat it.
    Feeling the tension in the air behind her, she turned around and faced him. Both were strained to their respective limits of endurance as they stared at each other, both pairs of eyes shuttering their innermost thoughts from the other. Christina felt a stab of pain, for Robert did not deserve this from her, but she was afraid that if she spoke to him of Varek she would confess everything, even of the muddled feelings battering at her disoriented mind and body at this very moment.
    The reserved front he was struggling to hold on to slipped, and Christina saw the pain beneath the mask. When he turned away from her to sit on the edge of the bed, she stood up and wandered, with hesitant steps, to her side of the bed. The mattress lay between them like a battlefield. “I do love you, Robert.”
    His back was still to her as he asked stiffly, “Do you? Truly?”
    She hesitated for the merest second, before answering quickly, “Yes.”
    Was she in love with Robert? Compared to what she had shared with Varek, the answer was a resounding no. But, that wasn't the only kind of love that existed between two people. There was the love of sharing, the love of ... friendship ... of companionship. The love that two people shared with their child. As if in a daze, she leaned over and blew out the candle on the bedside table.
    Pulling the covers down on their bed, Robert climbed in then held out his hand to her. Her smile expressed her relief as she slid in beside him, sighing with contentment when his arms pulled her close. There were no words spoken as they lay together, her head pillowed on his shoulder. Her eyes drifted closed and her roiling emotions soon became a distant hum as his fingers hypnotically stroked her temple, soothing her exhausted emotions into a deep, dreamless sleep.
    Breathing in her subtle scent, Robert stared up into the darkness as he continued to stroke her brow. The only sound in the room was the soft whisper of her breath, a mere sigh in the moonlit stillness. His arms tightened about her when he remembered the sight of her in her former husband's arms. Over his many years in the King's Regiment, serving as an aide to Wellington, Robert had fought in many a campaign, losing some and winning most; however, he knew he was now facing the greatest battle of his life. Hell, if he was Varek, he would fight without honor to get her back and keep her. Unfortunately he knew that the archduke already had a very major advantage in this battle.
    Christina was in love with his enemy.

Four

    Varek was leaning nonchalantly against a tree, restively biding his time, when he saw the door open.