Free Desire and Duty by Marie Medina Page B

smiles around you. His sense of humor comes out more. He’s just
plain happier when you’re in the room.”
    “He appreciates my work ethic,
and—”
    The door opened, and Gwynn shut her
mouth as she turned to see Orman rushing into the room. He looked angry as he
strode toward them with purpose.
    ****
    Orman came to a halt by the bed and
took a deep breath to collect his thoughts. He’d had some choice words for the
lord, but he didn’t want to let them fly in front of Gwynn. He folded his hands
in front of him and tried to speak calmly. “I’ve spent days writing to people,
and you knew all along whom I should be writing to. I’d like an explanation.”
    Gwynn took up a book that had been
lying haphazardly on the bed, and she carried it over to the bookshelf. She
glanced back at them as she slid it into place. “I can wait outside, if you’d
like some privacy.”
    Orman never wanted to ask Gwynn to
leave any room he was in, but he planned on getting some answers out of Vane.
“I may be a while.” He reached into his pocket. “But if you could take these
letters to my study. Open the one with the blue seal and see what it says. It
should be about the linens you said we needed to replace. See what the merchant
says, and then we can make a decision later.”
    She took the letters from him, her
fingers brushing his as she did so. She seemed to be watching him very
carefully. “All right. I hope he quotes a better price than the last one.” She
glanced at the letters and then eyed him once more before nodding to Vane. “You
behave. You’ve done enough damage already.” She turned on her heels and left
without looking back.
    Orman looked at Vane. “Perhaps I
should’ve left you with her. She’d probably get more answers than I would.”
    “I can’t do anything more than say
I’m sorry. You’ve all found out the truth anyway, so why keep talking about
it?”
    Orman sat in the chair by Vane’s
bedside. They’d only discovered that Vane’s mate was a lycan because the
vampire talked in his sleep, and it infuriated Orman that Vane had hidden such
information. “Because you could die. Are you in shock or what? How do you not
see how serious this is?”
    “How do all of you not see how
serious my pain is? Why aren’t any of you respecting my wishes?”
    “Your wish is to die without trying
to get better. I know I’ve never met your mate, but what man would let another
die because of a fight that happened twenty years ago?”
    “That’s just it. He’ll come. And
then he’ll leave again.” Vane closed his eyes. “I don’t want to keep talking
about it.”
    Orman bit his tongue and eventually
said the most diplomatic thing he could think of. “You’ll thank us when this is
over. You’ll see.”
    Vane opened his eyes. “Don’t you
have your own love life to straighten out?”
    “Don’t change the subject.”
    “I could say the same to you. I
feel we’ve closed the last subject. On to a new one.” Vane turned to his side
and propped on one elbow. “Now answer my question.”
    Orman stood and took up a bottle of
blood from the table. While the blood wasn’t Vane’s mate’s and wouldn’t heal
him, it would at least give Vane some strength. “Drink. You can’t even sit up.”
    Vane sat up but took the bottle
anyway. “I can sit up. I simply chose not to. Stop evading me.”
    “I don’t have a love life at all,”
Orman said as he flopped back into the chair. He folded his hands in his lap.
“There’s nothing to straighten out.”
    “Nothing to straighten out? Hmmm,
if you say so.” Vane uncorked the bottle and drank about a third of it. A bit
of color returned to his face, and he leaned back. “Gwynn was studying you very
carefully just now. I thought perhaps she was finally returning your feelings.”
    “I don’t think a girl like Gwynn
will ever return my—” He stopped and looked up at the grinning vampire,
realizing he’d been tricked. “I’m too old for her.”
    Vane