Luna stopped just inside the doors and shook out her arms. Water dripped from her fingertips and splashed to the stone tiles. She felt the trickle of rain cross her neck, slide down the crease of her back and over the curve of her bottom. She began to shake again from the cold. Her hair hung dark against her face and bosom, even longer in its wet state. She jumped up and down to loose the water from her hair so she could retire to her room and warm up again by the fire. She couldn’t feel where the material of her dress ended and her body started. The cloth was heavy with water so she squeezed out her skirts, tighter and tighter, until a rivulet ran across the slope of the floor.

She looked up at the sound of footsteps. A rush of heat flared in her chest; there was Nicolaus. As soon as she saw him, she let go of her skirts but not fast enough to hide her legs from his gaze.

‘What are you doing here?’ she asked abruptly.

He stumbled over his words and she had to ask again, all the time keeping her jaw in a lock that made her feel at least a modicum of propriety.

‘I came to watch the wild storm. I didn’t expect to find you here.’

Still he did not turn away. Water from her hair dripped into her bosom and a trickle ran down her forehead. She stood as boldly as she could, but a droplet of water hung off the very tip of her nose and she couldn’t help herself—she flicked her hand across her face and dropped it back to her side.

He laughed. ‘Clearly you did not expect to be found either!’

Luna breathed deeply. ‘Excuse me,’ she managed to say, pushing past him.

She hurried along the corridor and up the stairs to her chamber without looking back, shutting the door with a firmness that made it bang. One final droplet of rainwater slid down the dip in her back and Luna shivered. She moved to stand in front of the fireplace, watching the flames curl and flick their fingers of heat around the logs. Slowly she stepped out of her dress and her undergarments, also wet, and knelt before the flames, stretching her hands towards the heat. Nicolaus hadn’t moved when she’d pushed past him. It should have been shocking but wasn’t. She rubbed her arms as the fire’s heat stung, then turned and sat so that her back was now to the flames. The warmth crept round her hips and up the line of her backbone till she throbbed.

Chapter Twenty-Two

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The Turning of the Year