The Silk Bride by Rebecca Hagan Lee

Author:Rebecca Hagan Lee
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2013-07-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”

—GALILEO GALILEI, 1564–1642

Someone was reading aloud. Julie lay with her eyes closed and listened to the cadence of the voice. It took her a few seconds to identify the owner and the story he was reading. It was Will Keegan, and he was reading Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame in French.

“Interesting choice.” Her voice was stronger. It wasn’t back to normal yet, but she was no longer relegated to a mere whisper.

Will closed the book and looked over at her. Her eyes were open, although it was impossible for her to open her swollen and bruised eye completely. “My library here is limited. But you knew the work, so I assumed that meant you liked Romanticism.”

His voice was hoarse, and from his place in the story, Julie suspected he must have been reading aloud for quite a while. Reaching up, she traced the sutures above her eyebrow with her fingers and grimaced. “I enjoyed the story, but I never aspired to resemble Quasimodo.”

Will set the novel aside and gave her a reassuring smile. “Dr. Stone had to sew you up in a few places.”

She wasn’t normally vain, but the thought of being scarred for life frightened her. “On my face?”

He heard the alarm in her voice and read the panic in her uninjured eye. “And your shoulder.”

“Oh.” Julie reached up to touch her shoulder and felt a bulky bandage beneath the silk of the garment covering it.

“It took ten stitches to close the wound,” Will explained. “But not to worry: Dr. Stone was very careful. He took tiny stitches. If there is a scar, it will be all but invisible.”

“You said he sewed me up in a few places,” she reminded him. “How many others?” She gingerly circled the area around her swollen eye and cheekbone, searching for more sutures.

Will slid to the edge of his chair, leaned over, and gently ran the pad of his thumb over her lower lip. “Here.” He touched the first stitch, and then the other one. “And here.”

His gentle touch sent a shiver of longing—or perhaps belonging—through her. Something about this particular man made her feel special. As if he saw something in her that no one else had ever seen.

Julie ran the tip of her tongue across the wound. “That’s all?”

“That’s all,” he confirmed, gently stroking the area between her bottom lip and her chin. “You bit through it.”

“Oh.” That frisson of awareness shot through her once again. There was no doubt about it: Will Keegan made her feel sensations she’d never felt before. She smoothed her fingers through her hair and noticed the new bandage on her wrist. “Is it broken?”

Will shook his head. “I’m happy to say that my diagnosis was incorrect. He twisted it enough to sprain it. Not enough to break it.” He made a face. “I’ll wager it hurts the same, though.”

She tried to smile, but couldn’t quite manage it. “Only a bit.

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