Chapter 13

Dasha fussed relentlessly until Krystoff finally gathered her against his chest. "Stop, Wife," he murmured against her rich chestnut hair. "I promise, I won't disappear if you stop touching me."

Rather than feeling comforted, Dasha burst into tears and sobbed into his shirt while he held her, running his hand over her smooth hair. "I know!" she wailed. "But they cut off your finger, Krysto!"

She pushed away from him and paced the length of their bedroom, tears streaming down her face, hands thrown up in the air as she talked and walked.

Krystoff took her momentary distraction to sink tiredly onto the mattress of their bed. He nearly groaned out loud at the pleasure of being in his own bed again. A hard, lumpy single mattress on a wooden plank with no pillow or blanket had been the extent of his accommodation for a week.

"It could have been much worse, Dasha."

"No, it wouldn't have been," she snapped, going from despair to anger in a flash as she pace