Free Twice Upon a Time by Olivia Cunning

grandmother and bring her here?”
    “And the healer, too?” she asked, seeming excited to be asked for help.

    “Yes, the healer, too,” Lara said, hugging the girl again. “Thank you for looking out for me.”
    “I want to help you. No one helped my mother when father was away.” Lara released the girl and she dashed from the room. Lara moved to help Reece back to the bed.
    “I wonder what happened to her mother,” he murmured.
    “Nothing, good. I’m sure of that. You don't look well,” Lara told him.
    “I don't feel well,” he admitted. “I don't think they will al ow me to continue to be your protector if I'm wounded.”
    Her heart thudded to a stop before racing in her chest. “We can't be separated. We must be together to leap. We have less than two days remaining.”
    “I'll try to think of something. I'll try playing down my injuries, so try not to act too concerned for me when the healer arrives.”
    “Who said I was concerned for you?”
    He collapsed on the bed and she grabbed a sheet to cover him. She spread it over him carefully, wincing when her eyes fel on the wound across his chest. The bleeding had almost stopped. She wondered how much blood he had lost. She touched her fingers to his forehead, finding his skin slightly warm to the touch.
    He chuckled. “You're obviously not concerned.”
    Her eyes met his. “You look pale,” she murmured.
    “I'll be okay,” he promised.
    She kissed his brow. “You'd better be. I need you.” He grinned. “It only took a knife wound to get you to admit that.” Voices were approaching. She straightened and moved away from the bed, hoping her worry wasn't as obvious to the others as it had been to Reece. She caught herself wringing her hands and dropped them to her sides just before her mother-in-law entered the room with the young girl and an older woman carrying a satchel. The healer went to Reece, while the governor’s mother went to Farima.
    “Are you injured, child?” she asked, taking her wrists and holding her arms wide to look her over.
    “No, Nasir protected me well.”
    “Safiye said he left you alone while he ran out of the room,” she said disapprovingly.
    “You were here when the poisoned food was brought in?” Lara asked.
    Safiye nodded.
    “So you know who it was?”
    The girl lowered her eyes. “Roxelana's servant.”
    Farima’s mother-in-law, Khadija, huffed an angry breath. “I should have known. She was married to the governor just before he glimpsed beautiful Farima and he promptly forgot Roxelana even existed.” She smiled at Farima. “He has always been an intelligent man. Knows what’s best for our territory.”
    “Roxelana must care for Ashar, if she is willing to kil me to have him,” Lara said.
    “No, like most of Ashar’s wives, she thinks she will gain power by heading the household. They cannot offer him what you offer him, Farima. He is wise to choose you.
    I will see that Roxelana is properly punished.”

    A grunt of pain drew Lara's attention to the bed. Wincing, she glanced away when she saw that the ancient healer was stitching Reece's wound, obviously without the benefit of an anesthetic.
    “Ow, lady, take it easy,” Reece complained.
    “What say you?” the doctor asked, looking puzzled.
    “Be gentle.”
    The doctor made a sound of annoyance. “Are you a man or a woman?”
    “Obviously neither,” he said. “I'm a eunuch.”
    Khadija laughed, and then turned her attention back to Farima. “He has been Ashar’s favorite companion since childhood for a reason.”
    “If he is to remain Farima’s personal guard, he will have to be clean shaven,” the healer said. She was about half way through stitching the wound on Reece's chest already, her nimble fingers neatly laying the stitches that drew his broken flesh together.
    Reece rubbed his smooth face. “I shaved this morning.” The doctor chuckled. “Nice try, Nasir. You know what I mean. We'll have to remove your penis.”
    “Whoa!”