Chapter 086

AMELIA

I lay in bed for a while after I had woken up. Everything about this place demanded that I sleep in, but the thought of seeing Damian again and maybe exploring got me out of bed and out of the house.

It was just after dawn but already, the servants were up and about their business for the day. They greeted me cheerfully as I passed. A woman, carrying a large basket filled with fresh vegetables into the house, told me breakfast would soon be served.

Damian had left me sometime last night to go sleep in a tent at some distance from the grounds. I pressed my ear against the flap of the tent when I got there, but there was no sound of movement from inside, only soft, even breathing.

I tiptoed in. Damian was wrapped up in a blankets, still fast asleep. He looked so innocent, harmless in sleep. A lock of his dark hair fell across his brow. My hands inched with the urge to stroke it. I jumped on the bed, raised his eyelids and kept them open.

"What the-" he began, then c