Page 65 of To Catch A Rogue

Still nothing.

"Here." He set the oars into their locks and knelt in front of her. Wasn't as if they were going anywhere in a hurry anyway. "Let me see your arms."

Lark looked up at him, the hunger in her eyes.

Peeling her sleeves up, he winced at the sight of all that blood. Tearing a strip off his own sleeve, he dunked it into the river and wiped some of the blood away. Unblemished skin gleamed through.

"I'm fine," she said, and not for the first time.

"I'm fairly certain you're not fine." He squeezed her hands. "You're as cold as ice and you've been oddly silent ever since we escaped. Besides, Iknowyou. You've been acting strangely ever since we arrived at the palace."

Tough as nails, hard as a rock. She'd always projected a devil-may-care attitude to the world, daring anyone to take her on with a wild light in her eyes that made even the most dangerous rookery thug reconsider his options.

But he'd been the one who held her at night as nightmares shook her small frame.

He'd been the one who'd seen her cry over the remains of a mangled dove she'd been feeding, before she'd ruthlessly dashed the tears from her eyes.

Sometimes he wondered if anyone else had managed to slip beneath her guarded walls, but he knew they were merely that. Walls. The real Lark was as frightened and cautious as the rest of the world; she just didn't like to show it.

"Will you.... Will you hold me?" She was shaking now in earnest.

Charlie unconsciously squeezed the makeshift rag, and water dripped all over his thigh. It was the last thing he'd have expected from her. "Of course."

"I miss your hugs," she murmured. "I used to love falling asleep on your chest, listening to your heart beat. It felt like the safest place in the world."

Curling her into his lap, he cradled her as tight as he could. "It's all right. We're safe."

A shudder went through her. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. The second I heard them howling...."

"Yeah. Almost shit my own trousers for a second," he joked. "If you don't tell, I won't tell. It'll be our little secret."

Not even a smile.

Hell.

He pressed a kiss to her hair, brushing his knuckles over her cheek. He'd promised not to push her, but it was hard seeing her like this and not being able to do more. Leaning back against the back of the boat, he kicked his feet up on the bench and tilted his head back on the rim as Lark rested her cheek against his chest.

There was a soft golden haze in the east.

The boat drifted slowly on the current.

Every inch of him ached and he was exhausted, but he wouldn't have traded this moment for the world.

"Do you think Blade and Herbert escaped?" she whispered.

"You ever seen a trap Blade couldn't worm his way out of?"

"There were a lot of them."

"Numbers have never stopped him in the past." He smoothed her hair off her forehead. "He'll be fine. Blade's the one person on this entire cursed mission I don't worry about. We just have to make it back to the right side of the river and I'll bet you ten quid Blade's smoking a cheroot at the foot of that bloody statue."

The breath eased out of her. "It makes me nervous, having you both along with me."

"Because of what happened to Tin Man?"

Every time he thought of that night, his guts knotted up like someone had grabbed a handful of them and was twisting.

"Because I don't think I can lose someone else." Her fingers curled in his shirt. "I've lost enough."