“You think you have the measure of me,” he scolded. “You should know I'm no coward.”
“Did you not just sneak up behind me with the intention of ending my life?” she said rising to alight first. She accepted Sylvester’s hand, glanced back at Leo. “Did you not hide your face in the depths of your hood?”
Ivana felt his irate glare whipping across her shoulders. But she did not give him an opportunity to reply. She turned to Sylvester. “I need you to do something for me in the morning. Herr Bruhn is expecting you to call. I shall leave a package for him on the desk in the study.”
Sylvester inclined his head. His gaze flitted to her companion, although it was not his place to pass comment. “Consider it done.”
A hulking figure of a man, her servant was one of the few people she turned to for support. His loyalty had been put to the test many times over the years, and he had never failed her.
Ivana tugged Sylvester’s sleeve and pulled him further away from the carriage. “He is angry,” she whispered, “that is all. Do not worry about the sword. He has no intention of using it.”
“Is he as strong as you?”
With concern etched on his face, Ivana did not have the heart to tell him she had come close to losing her life. “No. I am able to manipulate his thoughts,” she said, even though she doubted the truth of it.
“And he remembers nothing of his time here?”
“No. Nothing.”
Sylvester craned his neck, a movement he often used to suppress his frustration. “You will call me if you need me?”
Ivana offered a reassuring smile. “Of course.” If Leo made a sudden decision to use his sword she would not have time to scream. “Ask Julia to draw a bath, and I’d be grateful if you would prepare a room for our guest.”
Sylvester eyed the man behind her with some suspicion. “How long will he stay?” Recognising the impertinence in his tone, he added, “I will need to inform Frau
Hermann that we’ll need more blood.”
Ivana considered the question. The answer would depend on whether or not he accepted her motive for turning him, whether he accepted she had a justifiable reason.
She shrugged. “Perhaps an hour.” The image of her headless body lying sprawled in a pool of blood flashed into her mind. “Perhaps a night.”
The thought of a night spent knowing he was close caused panic to flare, and she quickly dismissed it.
Sylvester sighed. “To let him stay longer than that would be dangerous.”
Ivana nodded. “I know.”
“Shall I take his sword?”
“No.” She shook her head while attempting to give a confident smile. “Beneath the bravado he has a fear of being here. Let him keep his weapon if it brings him comfort.”
It could well be a decision she would regret.
Sylvester nodded and moved to walk away.
“Tell Herr Bruhn all is well,” she said. When warming her cold bones in her tub, she would attempt to send peaceful thoughts to the old man. He needed his rest and could not spend the night lying awake worrying. “Tell him I shall call to see him tomorrow evening.”
A gust of wind breezed over her, the wet gown clinging to her body, and she shivered as though shrouded in a sheet of ice.
“We should go inside.” Ivana turned to her guest who was standing in the courtyard staring up at the parapets. “Sylvester will escort you to your chamber and find something dry and suitable for you to wear. We shall continue our conversation in the Great Hall when we reconvene in an hour.”
He glanced down at his sodden cloak, patted the material moulded around his muscular thigh. “I shall accept your hospitality but only because I want to hear the truth from your lips. Because I owe it to my brothers to provide them with an explanation for the misery you have caused.”
His brothers?
She inclined her head. “I understand. Have no fear. You will receive the information you seek. It may surprise you to learn I would never break an oath. Indeed, without honour and integrity, we have nothing.”
Leo raised a cynical brow. “Save the preaching for someone more inclined to believe you.”