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“I owe you an apology,” he breathed quietly, remorse filling his gaze and causing her heart to take a tumble towards him.  “I am dreadfully sorry that I ever left you alone.  Apparently, I endangered you by withdrawing to the hwarang house so soon after our wedding.  Your father seemed to think that he still had the right to touch you.”

Her eyes fell shut.  “He said I had disgraced him.  By not sleeping with my husband.  That you must be convinced that he had given you damaged goods.”

“Well, you and I both know the truth of the matter, don’t we?” Dan Se tenderly responded.

Her eyes flew open again at the sweetness in his tone.

“The fault lies entirely with me,” he murmured.

“There is no fault,” she whispered as her eyes delved the depths of his.  She had never been this close to him before.  He was wreaking havoc with her breathing right now.

He quirked one raven eyebrow.  “Oh, to the contrary.  There is plenty of fault for me to claim.  Had I remained in this room with you, your father would never have felt free to come disturb you.  I will not leave again.  I will never open you up to such an attack ever again.  And I have made that abundantly clear to the man.”

She stilled.  Her eyes riveted to his.  “What do you mean?” she asked abruptly.

“I paid your father a little visit a couple of hours ago.  Let’s just say that I highly doubt the man will attempt to touch you.  Ever again.  Not unless he’s lost a love for this life.”

Her heart instantly melted.  She hadn’t thought it so susceptible to such a response, but the light in Dan Se’s eyes, coupled with the words flowing from his mouth, was wooing her.

“What are you talking about?  What did you do?”

His eyes slid away from hers to travel towards his sword.  She followed his gaze, rolling slightly onto her back to see what he was looking at.  But as her eyes fell on his sword, the bed brushed up against her bruised back, and she gasped in pain.

“I want to see it.”

“See what?” she queried.  But she knew what he was asking.

“Every single place he touched you today.”

She shook her head.  “You won’t be able to see anything.  Not yet.  It’s too soon.” 

His expression softened.  He reached up to cup her face lightly.  Then his thumb landed like a butterfly on her injured cheek.  “I can see the mark here.”

“That’s because he used his palm to slap me there.”  She winced as she remembered the pain that had exploded in her face at the touch of that violent hand.  Tears had instantly sprung to her eyes.  Though she had tried valiantly to hold them back.  The beating had been so bad today that she had grunted as he caned her.  She trembled as she remembered the violence which he had unleashed upon her back. 

Horrified, Dan Se resisted the urge to comfort her with the touch of his hand.  “What did he use on your back?”

“A rod.”

He should have killed him.  That’s what Dan Se was thinking.  Breathing was too good for that man.

“Where?”

“Everywhere,” she gasped and closed her eyes.  “From my shoulders to my knees.  He was a madman today.”  One of his strikes had even hit her calves.  As she recalled his uncustomary violence, she stifled a sob.  “I didn’t do anything wrong this time,” she whispered brokenly.

“I’m betting you never did anything wrong.  You certainly never did anything so wrong as to deserve what that man has dished out to you for…how long?  Since you were tiny?”

Her father had always despised her.  Because she hadn’t been born a boy.  And then because he had blamed her for her baby brother’s death.

She bobbed her head as tears began to slide down her cheeks.  She didn’t want to weep in front of Dan Se.  But then she remembered how he had blubbered over his brother’s death in her presence a month ago.  So she allowed herself to relax and her tears to flow.  And she felt his other hand reach up to cup the uninjured side of her face.  Then his gentle thumb began to brush those drops of grief away. 

She opened her eyes and was startled to find his own a mere few inches away.  His chocolate orbs gazed compassionately into hers.  Then he leaned towards her.  Shocked, she felt her eyes widening as she expected his lips to brush hers.  But at the last moment, his aim shifted slightly, and his tender lips stroked her cheek instead.

“I want to embrace you, but I don’t want to hurt you.”

She sobbed earnestly then.  Because of the simple kindness in his words.  And something troubling his tone.

She began to quake.  Her limbs violently shaking. 

Alarmed, he glanced down at her body.  “What is it?  Why are you trembling?”

Her teeth were chattering too.  “I – I – I,” and now she was stuttering, “I do not kn-know.”  Even her head began to shake.  She clamped down on her muscles, but they paid her no mind.  Her stomach began to do somersaults too.  Increasing her distress.

“What can I do?  How can I help you?” he cried out helplessly.

“You cannot,” she uttered through clenched teeth.

“Please…there must be something I can do.”

She opened her eyes and found an anchor in his steady gaze.  “Why are you being so sweet to me?”

“Why wouldn’t I be sweet to you?  You’re the girl my brother adored,” he breathed by way of an excuse.

She shook her head.  She continued to tremble as she responded, “We both know that wasn’t true.  Han Sung never saw me as anything more than a friend.”

“That’s just because he had yet to wake up to the charms of girls,” he answered with an upward flip of his lips.

A puff of air escaped her nose then as she acknowledged his hit.  “Too true.  I was beginning to despair of him ever awakening to mine.”

His eyes instantly sobered.  “The boy was simply blind,” he murmured.  Then his fingers slid delicately along her cheek.

She gasped inwardly as her mind deciphered his words and her heart probed for his intent.

“I am most thankful he did not injure you here,” he whispered as his index finger began to lightly trace a pattern on her cheek.  “At least, I can touch you somewhere.  Without hurting you.”

More tears flooded her eyes.

“What can I do?” he asked again.

“Tell me a story,” she whispered.

He cocked his dark eyebrows in confusion.  “What story?”

“Tell me about when you met a little girl named Mi Sook.  I know this story from her perspective.  But not from yours.”

He swallowed as his heart began to pound.  Should he tell her the whole truth?  Or just the facts?

She wasn’t the only one quaking now.