Chapter 4
He sat down on the bed, eyes sharp like a hawk, drilling into me.
Then he yanked my hand and placed it over his chest,
“Teel that? My heart’s beating. I’m not a damn ghost.”
I finally turned my head to look at him.
Truth was, he was striking-chiseled jaw, piercing blue eyes, brows like blades.
If only his stare didn’t feel like it could cut glass.
I started trembling as I spoke.
“General… I didn’t come here on my own.”
B
“Seraphina dragged me into this. She thought you were dead and didn’t want to go down with you, so she sent me instead.”
‘I’m just a maid-someone like me doesn’t deserve to be by your side.”
The whole point was to tell him Seraphina pulled a switch and also make myself look humble-like I knew my place.
With my tangled hair and busted lip, I looked pathetic enough to be convincing.
He stared at me a while.
‘Whatever the hell happened, the second you stepped foot into my house, you became part of it. As for this Seraphina nonsense-I’ll look into it myself.”
He stood up and walked into the next room.
Not ten minutes later, I heard a loud crash from his side.
Then shouting.
‘The General’s passed out! Somebody get the doctor!”
Even if he’d hurt me in a past life, I needed him now.
needed him alive if I was ever going to make Seraphina and Luke pay.
The doctor came in fast, checked his pulse, and frowned.
Ma’am, I’ll need you to help undress the General. I need to examine the wound.”
glanced at the maid beside me, wide-eyed.
Doesn’t he have servants for this? I-I really shouldn’t…”
Ma’am, this is no time for modesty.”
You walked through this house’s doors, you’re his wife now. His life’s on the line!”
Even Gideon, our steward, looked serious. So I did what I had to.
I pulled open his tunic.
Scars, slashes, bruises-God, how was he even alive?
The worst was a blackened, oozing arrow wound near his ribs.
The doctor’s face tightened.
Tve only read about this poison in old texts.”
Ive never seen if in real life.”
“Maybe the royal physicians at the palace might know the antidote.”
Gideon rode for the palace at once.
But by midnight, General Benedict started burning up.
“Rostel feel his skin! He’s burning like a furnace!”
He clung to me like he was slipping away, and I was the only thing tethering him to life.
“Ma’am, he’s getting worse by the second! What do we do?”
I couldn’t let him die.
If he did, I was as good as buried with him.
Suddenly, I remembered something.
Back when Seraphina caught a fever, I’d helped bring it down by wiping her down with grain alcohol.
It was a long shot, but I had to try.
I sent Rosie for a jug of whiskey and soaked a cloth.
The first round helped a little. But soon his fever spiked again.
I kept wiping him down every half hour, all through the night, praying he wouldn’t slip away.
