The Honest and The Brave by Rebecca King

Author:Rebecca King [King, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-09-02T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Annalisa fought a heavy ache in her head and forced herself to open her eyes. She gasped when she realised she was in a masculine room that was horribly unfamiliar. Panic overwhelmed her. It rose out of nowhere, like a seething dragon waiting to breathe fire and turn her to ash. It stole all her logic and propelled her to try to sit upright regardless of how she felt.

“Thank goodness you are awake,” Joshua murmured with heartfelt relief.

Annalisa jerked and immediately winced when she was met with a shaft of pain which snapped down her spine and made her flop back down again.

“What happened?” she whispered.

Joshua looked so incredibly handsome sitting beside the bed that all Annalisa could do was stare at him. The first thing that struck her was that he looked exhausted. He was paler than she could remember with dark circles beneath his eyes and a faint trace of stubble on his chin. In addition, he looked incredibly angry. So much so, a muscle ticked steadily in his jaw, which she suspected was clamped shut to stop him saying what he really wanted to say.

“Where am I?”

“In Mr Richardson’s house.” Joshua sat on the side of the bed slowly so he didn’t jostle her. “How is your head?”

“Sore, otherwise I am fine. Why am I here? I thought-” She tried to grab a faint memory of something important but it hovered just out of reach, teasing her with shadows and dancing shapes none of which made any sense.

“Can you remember what happened?”

“I can remember talking to Billy in the garden and then you on the doorstep.”

“Nothing after that.” It wasn’t a question.

Annalisa shook her head. “Why? What happened? What’s wrong with me?”

When Annalisa tried to push her fingers into the hair at the base of her neck, Joshua stopped her.

“Where is my aunt?”

“She is on her way. Hamish has gone to fetch her. She must stay here with you for the time being. I am afraid that neither of you can go home.”

“What’s going on, Joshua?”

Joshua picked her hand up and cradled it between his while he tried to find the words that would tell her but not scare the living daylights out of her. Word by word, he felt her tense until all he could see when he did look her in the eye was fear. A bone deep, icy, horrifying fear.

“I am sorry, Annalisa. All I can say is that you came far too close to having your life ended for us to take the risk of leaving you at your house. You are under armed guard here. Nobody will be able to get to you now. You have no choice but to stay here. Your aunt will have to stay as well, although there is no reason to suspect the thief would be interested in trying to attack the house again seeing as he didn’t find anything of much value. However, we cannot just assume anything. People like this thief generally don’t live

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