by Lisa Kumar
“Would you like something to eat, my lady?”
Natalie frowned. She wasn’t his lady. She was no one’s lady. “I would like answers.”
His lips twitched. “You may order some of those with your meal, little bird.”
Through narrowed eyes, Natalie shot him a glare. She wasn’t a bird, either. Why didn’t he ask about her name? Then again, she hadn’t enquired about his. Still, he didn’t see her resorting to ridiculous names, did he?
This time his mouth broke into a smile, albeit a small one. “Come, Natalie, get dressed so you can have your answers.”
Her body froze. He knew her name. How?
“Your name was on that little card that had your picture. Such a vivid image! How was it drawn?”
He’d gone through her purse. Of course, he and his kin would take advantage of whatever means they had in order to discover who she was. She would do the same.
She shook her head, not bothering to answer his question. Once her head cleared somewhat, she tried to move the situation forward. “If you show me where my clothes are, I’ll get dressed.”
“Oh no, you cannot wear the clothing in which you came. Items more suitable have been provided.”
Her face darkened. “What’s wrong with—”
He cut her off. “For your convenience, of course.”
“Of course,” she agreed drily, even though she did see the benefit of not rocking any proverbial boats until she knew what she was dealing with.
The male vacated his post by the door, walking to an armoire she hadn’t noticed. Admittedly, she hadn’t noticed much about the room, until now. She found her attention split between inspecting the room and watching him. He won. As he rifled through the closet, which revealed an alarming amount of dresses, he would shake his head and mutter a word or two that held no meaning to her whatsoever.
A smattering of amusement welled up through her worry. Watching him play ladies’ maid was kind of charming. She would explore the room later.
Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, alarms sounded, but she valiantly ignored them. She was stuck here for now, so why shouldn’t she take in all the sights she could? It didn’t mean she was getting too comfortable. Not at all.
He finally settled on an ivory dress and moved to lay it at the foot of the bed. She tracked his measured stride, admitting more men could do with a walk like that.
A sudden thought caused her to frown. He had her at a distinct disadvantage, one she would rectify. Now. “What’s your name?”
He swung back toward her, a blank look pasted to his face. “Name?”
She tamped down on the desire to roll her eyes. “What do you call yourself? You know, what do others know you as?”
His eyes lit up. “Ah, you want my public name.”
Natalie pursed her lips. Public name? What was he talking about? She mentally shrugged it off for now. “Yes.”
“Lorh. My name is Lorh.”
“Lorh.” The strange name rolled around on her tongue, sounding like ‘lore.’
He nodded and gave a slight bow of his head. “I will leave you now.” And with that, he strode through the door before she even processed his words.
****
Natalie balked at putting on the lovely silk dress, and then straightened her shoulders. A simple gown would not get the best of her, even though she might have to struggle into it. She ran a hand over the fabric, and a smile forced its way to her mouth. The material felt divine, soft and smooth against her fingertips.
She glanced up into the mirror that stood before her. Her pale face greeted her, and she frowned at her colorless cheeks. More striking was the room displayed in the mirror, the room that surrounded her. Muted grays, tans, and greens met vaulted ceilings and stone floors that boasted the same color scheme. Even the furnishings echoed this down to the curtains that flanked arched windows—with an accent color thrown in here and there.
Natalie sighed. The room wouldn’t get the dress on her. Before all courage deserted her, she stuffed the offending article over her head. It slithered down with amazing ease. Or so she thought. Now her arms were in an awkward position, and she couldn’t find the sleeve openings. She scowled. Great.
The more she twisted, the more askew the dress became. Tears of frustration threatened to well up, while sweat popped up on her skin.
A soft laugh sounded, and a gentle hand helped slide the dress into place. She spun around. A young teen stood there, eerily similar to the young girl she’d seen but ten or fifteen minutes ago.
“There are more of you?” She slapped a hand over her mouth, and heat crept over her cheeks. The words had slipped out, but that didn’t make them any more polite.
A grin lit the teen’s face, and she dipped her head. “There are many of us, you could say. I am Nara.”
“Nice to meet you, Nara.” She paused. “How many of you are there?”
“With or without Lorh included?”
She gave the girl a puzzled look. “Why wouldn’t you include your brother?”
Nara sent her a smile. “Yes, silly me. Why would I not, indeed?”
Natalie blinked. Her conversations here so far were bizarre. “So how many more of you can I expect to pop up?”
Nara’s brow creased. “Pop up?”
“Show up. Drop by.”
“Ah, visit you, you mean.” She threw Natalie a mischievous glance. “You shall find out once you see us all.”
“What kind of answer is that?”
“The only one she will offer you,” a voice spoke from the doorway.
As she spun toward the voice, an energizing awareness swept down Natalie’s spine. Lorh leaned nonchalantly against the doorframe, his arms crossed and long fingers tapping on his forearms. She took a step back. “Y…you’re back?”
He lifted a lazy brow. “I’m escorting you to where we will be eating. I am lord of the manor, after all.”
Apprehension flared. “Lord of the manor?” Her wary gaze swept over him. She could see him as some sort of lord. His clothing, like everyone else’s she had seen so far, was simple yet elegant. The dark blue tunic he wore came mid-thigh, its silver embroidery contrasting nicely against its darker backdrop. A leather belt tooled with geometric designs sat upon his slim hips. Gray leggings tucked into knee-high boots completed the ensemble. Of course, the buttery leather made her fingers itch for a touch. On the whole, he made her itch for a touch.
Her mind stilled. She hadn’t just thought what she had. No, that was impossible. But she had. Oh, this wasn’t good. Feeling her face freeze up, she fought to keep a neutral expression.
He held out an imperious hand. “Come, it’s time.”
Nara shook her head. “I have yet to arrange her hair.”
He sent Nara a piecing look. “Playing personal attendant?”
Her lip jutted out. “I didn’t want a servant seeing to her.”
“Will you never follow my directions? You’re just like—” He broke off abruptly, tension creasing his face.
Natalie glanced at Nara. The same tension also lined her face. Just what was going on? Neither spoke, making Natalie search for the right words. “I don’t want to be any trouble and can wait on myself. Please don’t put yourselves out. Hopefully, I will return home soon.” That annoying voice in the back of her mind made its presence known, muttering something about three weeks, but she tuned it out.
“Yes, that’s the hope.” Lorh’s soft tone made her eyes flicker to him. His face was back to its calm mask.
Natalie shrugged. She didn’t want to get involved in a family tiff. “Well, we can go—to eat, that is.”
He sent an appraising look over her. “Your hair does need to see a brush today.”
Bristling at the criticism even though it was well deserved, she ran a hand through said rat’s nest. “I haven’t had time to comb it since I woke up. Anyway, my comb is in my tote, and I don’t know where that is.”
“All your belongings are in the armoire,” s
aid Nara.
“Nara, you may leave.”
“But—”
Lorh’s mouth firmed. “No arguments.”
Nara’s crestfallen expression must have touched a chord within Lorh, for his face softened. “We will speak later.”
“Okay, Vichi.” Nara bowed her head in that way they all seemed to have before shooting Natalie a grin as she turned to leave.
Natalie’s mouth had dropped open at Nara’s choice of words, but she nodded to the girl, nevertheless. She watched the girl’s back with troubled eyes. “Okay” seemed like an odd saying for Nara to know. It sounded so…human. And “Vichi” meant… For a brief second, she believed she’d known, and it hadn’t jibed with everything she’d been told. Blinking, she frowned as the word and any meaning it held slipped farther away.
Shrugging off her silly thoughts, she focused on Lorh, only to squeak in alarm and inch back a step or two. He’d moved into her personal bubble of space, armed with a brush. She didn’t like that gleam in his eyes.
Still, she soon found herself seated on a chair that rested before the unlit fireplace, his sure stokes releasing any tangles that had the misguided notion of seeking permanent residence. It should’ve felt heavenly and it did, too much so for her peace of mind. The motions of his hands zinged down to her toes, which curled against the bare stone of the floor.
Speaking of toes, she would need some slippers. “Do you happen to have anything I can wear on my feet?”
Lorh stopped brushing and strode over to the massive wood armoire that apparently held everything that she could ever need. Flinging the doors open and withdrawing a pair of slippers from the bottom, he returned and set them down by her.
She slipped her feet into the soft leather, and the snug fit pleasantly surprised her. They couldn’t have fit better if they had been made for her. A smile tilted her lips, and she craned her neck to look at him. “They fit perfectly!”
He merely smiled, commencing his brushing again. She sat back, deciding she might as well enjoy having a handsome male seeing to her every need. Well, her hair’s need, that is.
Chapter Three
At one time, the flowering shrubs in the courtyard would’ve grabbed Natalie’s attention. But that was back home, where there weren’t any moving trees, so these had the honor of her perusal by default. Natalie didn’t know if they were ghastly or beautiful, with their limbs twining then separating. Snakelike. The comparison made her shiver. She didn’t much like snakes.
Still, the scenery gave her something to contemplate other than the person by her side. She could almost ignore the hand at her elbow, urging her forward. Almost ignore how her body became hypersensitive when close to him.
But not quite. Praying they drew near to their destination, she glanced up at the branches that overhung the flagstone path they walked on. Another shiver worked its way through her body.
“You do not like the trees and the other growing plants.”
She shook her head, her voice carried away by the conflicting emotions of fear and fascination. Whether those emotions were saved solely for the scenery, she couldn’t decide.
“What you see in this garden cannot hurt you.”
Meaning what was outside this garden could? The alarm that flared up at his choice of words must’ve flashed across her face, for he stopped walking. His hand slid up her arm, over her shoulder, and along her neck. The palm came to rest upon her cheek. The sensation… Natalie closed her eyes, only to open them when he made no further move. She searched his eyes, but he avoided her scrutiny.
Taking her hand in his, he gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Come, I want to show you something.”
As he led her toward a gardened area, she tried to ignore the tingle his touch gave her, so she settled for staring back and forth between him and the bush they neared. Once they stood before it, he drew their hands toward a branch. She swallowed the squeal on her lips and closed her eyes instead. A gentle caress against the backs of her fingers caused her to jump, her eyes flying open.
“Oh!” Glancing up at him, she sent him an inquiring look. Lorh shook his head, smiling and nodding toward the bush. Leaves tickled across her skin and made her laugh nervously. But when she caught him gazing at her, the laughter died in her throat. The emotion in his eyes... She couldn’t describe it as anything other than longing. But longing for what? Surely not her. He hardly knew her.
She self-consciously tugged at a strand of hair with her free hand. “What?”
“Your laugh. It’s good to hear.”
She didn’t know how to reply to that. He was throwing her off balance, not that it took much since she was in a strange place. Some emotional distance would be needed for her to gain back what she’d lost.
But even as she stiffened her resolve, something coiled itself around her hand, causing her to gasp and pull back. It was a young green shoot from the bush.
He stilled her movement. “No, no. You’ll damage the delicate shoot if you pull away before it has time to let go.”
“It’ll let go?”
“Did I not say you were safe in my garden? Yes, truly it will let go.”
“Oh,” was all Natalie could mutter. Once she became accustomed to the sensations, being held hostage by a plant wasn’t so frightening.
“It is examining you, seeking to know you better through the only means it has.”
“Like a toddler being orally fixated?”
Lorh’s laugher rang throughout the courtyard. “Yes, I guess you could say that. My siblings exhibited that behavior when they were very young.”
“You’re that much older than they are?” She would guess him to be considerably older, though his appearance did not add to this impression. He could be anywhere from his early twenties to his early thirties, as he had that kind of ageless face that made time irrelevant.
“Yes, I am by far the oldest.” His tone brooked no further questions.
He blew hot and cold, his moods changing with an irregularity she couldn’t predict. She glanced down at her hand, wondering what to do next.
“Flick your fingers gently. It will loosen. Then you can pull away.”
She did as he said, and the shoot loosened, allowing her hand to slip away easily and her arm to fall back to her side. Not resisting the impulse, she flexed her hand. It moved like it should, the encounter with the shrub not leaving any undesirable effects.
“Your hand, it’s in one piece?” His teasing voice came from above her head. She spun toward him so quickly she nearly got whiplash, but halted when her nose almost hit his chest. Yikes, when had he gotten so close—and so tall?
He picked up her hand, which by now lay limply by her side, and made a show of inspecting it. “Your hand, my lady, is fine?”
She nodded wordlessly, watching as his hair slid over his shoulders and a few strands came to rest upon her hand. Air stilled in her lungs. The feeling of his hair on her skin was terribly familiar. But that had to be her mind playing tricks on her. Yes, that was it.
“Well, since you are unscathed,” he said, placing her hand on his arm, “let us continue on.”
Natalie followed him without a word, her mind too awash with conflicting emotions and thoughts to offer up any pleasantries. They walked for another minute or so, and she saw how rambling the place was that Lorh called home. He’d said it was a manor, but it resembled no manor house she’d ever seen in pictures. Low-lying buildings no more than a few stories high flanked the courtyard, which seemed to be at the heart of the layout. These probably served as housing. The one she’d come from certainly had. Each structure was connected to the next with covered walkways that would offer some protection from the elements.
She wanted to peek past those buildings to see what lay beyond. He’d made mention of a city, his city if she remembered correctly. Did that mean he was a lord of some type in this…wherever this was?
But if he was, where were the people? Though she’d been awake for no more than an hour or so, she h
adn’t seen anybody other than Lorh and his sisters. But wait, Nara had mentioned servants. That she hadn’t wanted them to take care of Natalie. Figuring that maybe they were all busy with their duties, she put the matter away for now. Time and patience would show her the answer.
She frowned. Where had that uncharacteristic thought popped up? While not exactly impatient, she wasn’t blessed with an overabundance of that virtue, either. Especially not in a situation like this. Her frown grew larger. This bizarre situation defied all explanation, so maybe it wasn’t a good measuring stick for her patience.
Shaking herself back to the present as they neared a terrace surrounded by creeping vines and latticework, she noted they neared their destination. The polished wood of table and chair gleamed in the sunlight. Various plates and dishes, emitting a tantalizing aroma, graced the smooth surface of the table.
