Knight-in-Arms - Trust: (BWWM Interracial Paranormal Shifter Romance Part Two) by Athena Dore Page A

preferred it if you were still in hospital, but circumstances, you know…”
     
    What? She’d been in hospital? But she had no memory of being there. There had to have been a mistake. Or, what if she was dying of some sort of disease accompanied by amnesia?
     
    “What’s wrong with me?” she asked, suddenly frightened. Doctor Astor smiled reassuringly.
     
    “Nothing” she said. Rochelle’s heart rate slowly returned to normal.
     
    “Then why was I there?”
     
    Doctor Astor’s smile seemed frozen in time, like a star that had long since ceased to exist in space, but which still appeared in the night sky.
     
    “You…collapsed”.
     
    She collapsed. Something stirred in her memory. She was falling. It was dark. That was all, but perhaps that was when it happened.
     
    “So, where am I?” she asked, deciding to focus on the present. Doctor Astor seemed to relax a bit at that – but only a bit.
     
    “You’re at Roseford Abbey” she said tentatively.
     
    “Roseford Abbey?” Why didn’t anything make sense? Roseford Abbey was a very large and very grand house in the countryside of the South-East of England. She’d been there once on a school trip when she was about ten, although they had only visited the part that was open to the public.
     
    She didn’t know what was going on, but she certainly wasn’t in the public area now. Either she’d been kidnapped, was the long-lost heiress, or knew the owner. He was probably an extremely wealthy Duke Something or Other and she didn’t know any extremely wealthy Duke Somethings or Duke Others so her last thought could be ruled out, as could the second. Heiress? That was too silly to be considered. So, kidnap… She looked out the window. It was hard to judge how high-up she was, in case she needed to jump or tie all the bedclothes together and make a bid for freedom.
     
    “Yes,” said Doctor Astor, “It belongs to the Duke of Wyvern”.
     
    “Why am I here?” she asked.
     
    Doctor Astor’s frozen distant star smile was back.
     
    “We…it was…I thought it was the best place for you”, her voice was slow and melodic, as though she were reading a bedtime story to a five-year-old, “I know the family and they said it would be all right if you stayed here”.
     
    “Why, what happened?” Rochelle was suspicious now.
     
    “How much do you remember?”
     
    Rochelle strained her memories. It was difficult to catch anything; they kept melting away like snowflakes in the palm of her hand.
     
    Someone – a man – on top of her. Fear. She couldn’t escape. Then, pain. Pain rushing through her neck… Rochelle shut down her thoughts quickly. Her eyes were wide with relived terror, her breathing, quick and shallow. She gripped the bed sheets. Xavier. Xavier had bitten her. No. She was mistaken, surely. But…no…
     
    “It seems you remember” said the woman, “but Rochelle, I want you to know that you’re safe now”.
     
    “Where is he?” Her voice was loud, shrill, panicking.
     
    “He’s outside”.
     
    “Don’t let him in” she said.
     
    There was a knock on the door.
     
    “That’s him, isn’t it?”
     
    “I don’t know”, Doctor Astor said, “But Rochelle, I want you to know that you are safe”.
     
    She answered the door. It was Xavier. He must have heard the commotion.
     
    “How is she?” she heard him ask quietly.
     
    “She seems to remember” Doctor Astor whispered. Xavier sighed.
     
    “Can I talk to her for a moment?”
     
    “It’s probably best if…”
     
    “Please, Cate”. There was something in the tone of his voice, not commanding, but more like a gentle push in the right direction.
     
    Doctor Astor sighed and opened the door further. He came in. She left. The changing of the guard.
     
    “Don’t come any closer” exclaimed Rochelle.
     
    “Rochelle, I won’t hurt you”. How could she trust him after…after what had happened? She jumped out of the bed and snatched up a glass jug lying