At last the ladies and Leonardo retired for the night and the villa was silent. Sandra waited a bit longer, just to be sure everyone was asleep. When she thought it was safe, she wrapped a heavy shawl around her shoulders over her linen nightgown and took up a lighted candle.
Walking in her bare feet for quietness, she made her way along the corridor, tiptoeing past the suite of rooms used by Elisabeth and the smaller suite where Leonardo and Bianca slept. At the end of the corridor, the door to the servants' stairs swung open on well-oiled hinges. Sandra stepped onto the landing, pulling the door partly shut behind her but leaving it unlatched for a quieter exit.
In front of her, the stairs led down into the darkness of the lower level of the house. To her right they proceeded upward. Gathering the skirt of her nightgown in one hand so she would not trip on it, and holding the candle high in the other hand, Sandra began to climb.
There was no door at the top. The steps simply opened out onto a hall. Sandra knew this uppermost floor of Gerutinr well, for she had often played there when she was a child, and periodically Elisabeth decided the rooms must be cleaned and her daughter must help. Sandra looked along the floor of the hall, seeking a sign of candlelight showing through a crack at the bottom of one of the doors leading to servants' bedrooms. She found what she sought beneath the third door on her left. Going to it, she rapped twice, waited a moment, and rapped twice more, giving the signal to open as she had heard Leonardo describe it to Lucian.
She heard a sound from within, as though someone was startled at being disturbed so late at night. Then, very quietly, the latch was drawn back and the door opened.
Poised to defend himself, Lucian was holding his dagger with the black-and-gold hilt.
He wore only his linen shirt, and his hair was in such disorder that Sandra decided he just have pulled the shirt over his head in haste before opening the door. The candle in his hand threw light upon his cheekbones and his high bridged nose. He looked freshly shaven and he was so sharp-eyed that Sandra knew he had not been asleep. He stared at her as if he could not believe she was standing before him.
Sandra took advantage of his surprise to push past him and into the room. He peered into the hall bathing her. Apparently satisfied that no one else was with her, Lucian turned back to find her firmly planted in the middle of the room. Her candle sat beside his on a small table next to the bed, the twin flames sending flickering light and shadow across the whitewashed walls. Lucian laid his dagger on the table, ready to his grasp should he need it. Sandra caught her breath at the silent implication that he believed danger lurked even here, in his spartan room.
Then his eyes met hers. They gazed at each other in silence until Sandra spoke.
"Why am I not supposed to know you are in Gerutinr?" She demanded in a harsh whisper. "You promised to return to see me, yet now that you have come back, you keep your presence a secret from me."
"Sandra." He lifted one hand to touch her but she flinched from the touch. "Surely you know what you risk by coming here to me, at so late an hour, wearing only your nightgown?" He said.
She blushed totally forgetting the reason for her annoyance. She knew it was risky to go to a man's chamber so late at night, even if they were friends.
"And a warm shawl." She pulled it more closely about her shoulders. Her bare feet on the wooden floor were cold. She told herself that was why she was trembling.
"You must leave at once." Lucian said. "Did anyone follow you here."
"No one followed me. Even if someone had, there is no person in this house who would spread gossip about me." She glared at him. "Do not attempt to change the subject, Lucian. If I had not accidentally heard your voice this afternoon, I would never have known about your secretive visit."
"You were eavesdropping," he accused her. "How else could you know the signaling knock Leonardo suggested?"
"Not eavesdropping. Waiting for you. Waiting for you to tell Leonardo that you intended to see and speak to me, no matter what he said, am suppose to be your best friend. But it seems that you will speak to him, and to my mother, but not to me. Why, Lucian? Do you not love me anymore? Have you found a suitable best friend that is better than me? Answer me now Lucian?" She asked sobbing.
"You don't understand." He protested. He tried to reach out to her but she flinched from his touch once again.
"Then explain to me what I do not understand."
"I cannot." His mouth was hard, closing tightly on the clipped words.
"You do not trust me. You think I am a foolish girl who will tell everything she knows to anyone who asks a question of her."
"It's not that I don't trust you." He insisted. "It's because I have sworn an oath not to speak to you about what I am doing."
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To Be Continued....
Who missed me?🤔 anyway just decided to update
I'm done with my exams now and I will start updating all my books as of this month 😊
Peace out ✌️
YOU ARE READING
RED
Romance"Sweet Sandra," he said. "I want you to promise you will tell no one that you have seen me. It is vitally important that no one knows I am here." "I promise." She said at once. "But-----" "Not another word," he said. "I saw you come here...
