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could care less about the cases. They could have them just as long as they gave her
back the portraits and the locks of hair that they d taken from the boys.
Well, that and the man currently mumbling about apple turnovers as he hugged the
old pillow tighter. At least he was fine for the moment, she told herself, deciding that
was enough for right now. She d focus on taking care of him and making him feel
better and then& then she d try to find a way to pay to have two more miniatures
made. It wouldn t be cheap, but she d find a way to have them done.
She d take in extra sewing, work down at the tavern, the bakery, she d give up her pin
money for sweets, make her dresses last a little longer, anything so that she could re-
capture those precious moments before they were lost forever.
But first&
She sighed heavily as she looked at her husband who was now murmuring sweet
nothings into his pillow as he snuggled it closer, and she would swear on this to her
dying day, giggled in his sleep a few seconds before the color once again leeched from
his face and he-
Rolled over and proved that his stomach really was a bottomless pit.
*-*-*-*
 Oh& God& , Robert groaned manfully as he rolled over and cracked one eye open to
confirm that yes, yes he was in fact laying on a cold wood floor.
Fully opening his eyes, he rolled over onto his back with a pained grunt and tried to
figure out why he was sleeping on the floor instead of on a bed. He also wondered why
he was starving, sore and felt like every inch of his body had been scrubbed raw. Then
of course came the question of why he was naked with only a sheet wrapped around
his waist and a very angry middle-aged woman standing over him with her arms
crossed over her flat chest as she tapped her foot impatiently on the floor, by his head.
 Get out, she snapped, that damn foot of her never ceasing in its tapping.
And he would love nothing more than to get the hell out of there, but there were just
a few things stopping him at the time, like&
 Where s my wife? he asked pleasantly even as he shot her a look that told her
exactly what would happen if something had happened to Elizabeth. He grabbed hold
of the sheet covering his manhood to make sure that the rather angry looking didn t
get a clear shot at it as he stood up, absently looking around the small plain room that
looked like it had recently been scrubbed cleaned. The room was still dingy, but at
least now it smelled like fresh lemons and wax.
 She s downstairs working off the rest of your tab, she said in a disapproving tone as
she flicked one of her hands towards the corner where his suit waited for him.
 What do you mean she s working off my tab? he snapped, grabbing his pants as he
felt the old anger that he d worked so hard to destory trying to make its way back to
the surface, but he would never let resurface, not after Elizabeth came into his life
and changed everything.
Then again, if someone had hurt his wife&
 She only had enough money to cover the cost of the doctor and the room for one
night. She had to work off the rest, the woman said firmly as she headed toward the
door, pausing only long enough to send him a scathing look as though this were
somehow all his fault and as much as he d like to scream at the woman and tell her
that it wasn t, something told him that it was.
*-*-*-*
 They re still waiting for their breakfast, Miss Bridgett, the owner s sister and
someone that was probably going to give her nightmares for years, said with a
contemptuous smile that pretty much said it all.
She d enjoyed every last minute of misery that she d inflicted upon Elizabeth in the
last seventy-two hours. Not that Elizabeth had ever believed that Miss Bridgett had
offered to allow her to work off most of the bill out of the kindness of her heart,
because she knew better. Well, that and the fact that Miss Bridgett got a creepy little
smile of satisfaction on her face whenever she asked Elizabeth to do something. She
seemed to take great satisfaction in finding something wrong with her work and
ordering her to do it over again, but this time she had better do it right.
 I m bringing them out now, she said, using that same smile that she used to use on
her parents when she had to go along with something that she didn t want to do just
to keep everyone happy as she grabbed two plates overflowing with eggs, ham and
biscuits and headed for the tavern where the same group of men that had stayed up
drinking whiskey and ale all night and offered her a few coins to sit on their laps,
were now nursing hangovers and demanding food.
God, she was tired, but she was trying not to think about that right now, because she
still had to go make sure that Robert was okay and try to get him to eat something.
He was looking a lot better than he had the night before and she wanted him to keep [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]