Her breath stilled in her chest when his lips brushed against each of her fingers, the act so innocent and yet so charged with something inexplicably more that her eyes were already beginning to darken with soft intentions she could only leave unspoken for the time being. He'd always had that impact on her, bringing her to her knees with one soft word, or the slightest touch, and she could barely keep herself from leaning over herself and meeting his lips with her own.

And then before she could even think more on that, he was pushing her away from him like some discarded strip of yesterday's paper.

"I never should have agreed to come," he said, voice low and harsh. "You intoxicate me and I can't let you. Not now. Not ever. Go back to Leathan, Char. Go back to him and let him be what I can't be. He's a good man."

"Don't speak of him," she murmured, drawing her legs over the side of the bed as she unsteadily stood. She couldn't fathom where she got the courage to say that, but she continued, "Don't you dare bring him into this-"

"He'll keep you safe. And that's all that matters when it comes to you, Char. That you're safe."

"What are you talking about?" she whispered, her gaze holding his own with desperation to understand where he was coming up with this. He sounded clinically unbalanced, and though Elphias had always had unbelievably profound degrees of conviction and passion in what he believed, he'd never sounded so unhinged to her.

"I hope that Sir and Ma'am are hungry. Mistress insisted on extra helpings of everything,"

She was caught off guard and it took her a split second to take in the presence of the small creature at the door. Staring at it for a second, she nodded quickly, meeting Elphias's gaze as she lifted a brow, challenging him silently to find a way to leave with her mother watching the stairway most likely from the dining room.

"Of course we are, Maddie," she said before waving a hand towards the bed, "We'll eat on the bed. If that's no trouble of course, Elphias?"