Chapter 177

"You look like you've been starved," she said sitting beside me as the Keeper fed me.

I just shrugged. With this man sitting here I couldn't reasonably remind her the women had wanted me to look half dead. Apparently they had done quite a good job. Everyone that saw me said I looked awful.

That evening I waited patiently for my family. There was a gnawing sense that something was going to happen. Part of me hoped Bane had forgotten our midday banter; I was never that lucky, though.

My men came, took me home, and then we went down to the bathhouse. Damien and his Brothers were keeping a secret, I could see it. They smiled and looked at each other like they were bursting, but they didn't say anything. It would come out whenever it came out, I decided. No use worrying what it would be.

I was resting on a chaise in the sitting room in the early evening. When I heard a knock indicating our food was here, I slipped down to rest on my kneeling place. My family like