He lifted his face towards me, tired eyes locking with mine. “I will do anything for you, Ornella. If I must drop to my knees
at your feet to prove that, then so be it.”
Swallowing the lump forming in my throat, I whispered, “Okay.”
He rose to his feet once again, bringing his hand up and cupping the side of my face. I leaned into his hand breathing in his
soft scent of pine and fire. The scent I was so unbelievably obsessed with.
“I won’t send any messages to my family,” I agreed.
We’d eaten rather quickly, not realising how hungry we both were. After that, we retired to bed, both too weary from the
day to do anything but fall asleep in each other’s arms.
And as my eyes drifted shut, I could feel his heavy breathing against my neck. A thought settled within me. I knew it like I
knew the sun would rise in the morning. When the news of my betrayal reached him, I would wish for death.
Chapter 50
ORNELLA
Landing on my back as Vanessa threw me over her shoulders, the wind was knocked out of me. She stood over me then,
pointing the very sharp end of her sword at my throat, a snarl escaping her lips as we locked eyes.
“You really are bad at this aren’t you?” he demanded aggressively before sheathing her sword and then lifting me up
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in one smooth motion.
“Does my brother honestly think you can kill someone? When I’ve had you on your ass at least eight times in the last twenty
minutes.”
Sarcasm rolled off her tongue as she strutted towards the table where her drink was placed. She hadn’t even broken a
sweat in the time we’d started training, whereas I was breathless and could feel sweat beads as it ran down my spine.
“In my defence, I wasn’t trained to be a fighter like you and your siblings.”
“I can tell. Seriously though, Ornella, if you knew how to keep your balance and didn’t rely so much on the blade itself,
you’d be a lot better. At least you’d be able to keep yourself alive long enough to escape.”
“I’m not a fighter, Ness, I am a reader.”
“The pen will always be mightier than the sword.”
She winked at me as I poked out my tongue. She was right though. I could hardly lift the sword fully without feeling pain in
my shoulders and down my back. Not only did Nicholas have me training here, but Nora was also having me run laps in the
gardens as well as learning archery and making me stick to a well-rounded diet.
I wasn’t a fighter. I used my words to fight my battles and thus far, I’d not done too bad. Save the battles of marriage with