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"You’re" She lowered her voice to a whisper "You’re naked"

"Sorry, I forgotcostume" He chuckled "You’ve seen all there is to see of me already And there’s no one here but the two of us"

"Precisely"

"Then why is it we’re whispering?"

Peeved, she said aloud, "I don’t know"

He teased her ear with his breath "We could warm each other"

She made a frustrated noise and pushed away "Be serious, please We’re here for a reason"

"Believe me, I know I’m here for a reason The reason is you"

"No The reason is your knee"

"My knee?"

"Yes I know it’s been paining you If you’re going to h these next feeeks, you need to care for it properly And if you’re determined to return to field command after thatWell, I’th and sta" His pride was piqued "And you should know, I have abundant stamina"

With a dismissive noise, she moved away She swa The way the ined it to be so it just at the water’s surface, he caught the gleaht

"What is that?" he asked, peering at it "Some sort of medieval torture device?"

"Yes That’s exactly what it is"

"God I was joking But you aren’t, are you?"

"No I borrowed it from my father’s collection There’s an ankle cuff, and this ball is attached It’s deuced heavy Here" She duht," he said, his voice suddenly strained "It is deuced heavy"

From a cord tied about her neck, she produced a thick key With a bit of trial and error, she ed to fit the key into a hole in the iron cuff The two halves opened like a clamshell

"This fits around your ankle, see?" she said "Stand on your good leg, lift the bad, and I’ll secure the thing"

"Noait just a minute Let me be certain I understand this You haveocean, naked--"

"I didn’t ask you to be naked"

"And now you propose to leg-shackle me"

"Only in the literal sense"

"Yes It’s the literal sense that concerns h, no need of metaphors So once you have me bound and chained, how aht and be picked apart by gulls to?"

She unlooped the key from her own neck and transferred the necklace to him "There You may hold the key Does that make you feel better?"

"Not really I still don’t understand what your purpose is"

"You’ll understand soon enough Just lift your leg"

He obeyed, tilting his head back to stare up at the night There was nothing like a sky full of stars to make a man reckon with his own hu orders fro himself to her medieval torture devices And she wasn’t even naked

"You can never tell a soul about this," he said "I rave My reputation would never recover"

"Your reputation? Do you think I’er to spread tales of this scene?" She fixed the cuff around his leg, and it snapped into place "Noly lower your foot, and drop the ball into the water"

Once again, he did as directed The ball sank quickly to the pebbled botto his foot doith it

"There Now you have resistance"

"I didn’t realize I was short on resistance I rather thought you’d been giving me ample supply"

"Physical resistance" She retreated soundlessly, slicing back through the calm water to put space between them "Walk toward ood leg When he tried to take a step with his injured leg, the ball and shackle dragged behind him Heavy, but with the water’s help, not i up another pace "Keepit As if you’reher through the chest-deep water "Tell ainst a boulder, but she darted to the side, swi her hair free of salty spray "And I’ll explain"

He ain "Explain"

"It’s like this, Bralad you’ve noticed"

"What I ht that you need to use your leg in order to recover your full strength Once your wound healed, staying abed was of no further benefit But when you walk--or run, or ht to every step And you’re so big, it’s too much strain Here in the sea, the buoyancy relieves the pressure on your knee And the shackle gives you a weight to work against"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>