bring your love baby i could bring my shame
i'll give you all of me tell me you love me
“Blitzen!”
She relaxes.
The muscles in her chest relax and she does her best to push aside the subconscious thoughts of thorns sticking in her side and the wild charge of Craigen. It occurs to her that she knows about as much about Blitzen as she had about the former leader of the thicket, that Blitzen was really nothing more than a stranger with a familiar, friendly face. But he was a stranger that Rosaline knew, and the only person that she had any sort of connection with in the islands. If any of her family remained then she knew not where, nor who they were – she could not rely on them for help.
And winter was fast approaching. She longs, secretly, to return to the shore for the summer, and bathe in the tropical sea, soak up the sun and the warmth. But the thought of having to risk the swim to Atlantis, and then risk being caught by some unknown male seemed too much. Better to stick with someone safe, someone she knew.
Someone that would not take advantage.
“It is good to see you. I am fine,” she pauses, eyes moving away from his face before continuing “Well, after a fashion. I am well, would be a better way to describe it. You see…” She had been about to explain her circumstance, that Blackmore had gone and that she was without a home, that she hoped he would allow her to intrude in his home for the duration of the winter and have his fine company to warm her bones and her heart at night – but before she could say anymore they were interrupted.
She flinches at first, but the horse that approaches seems as good natured as Blitzen himself is, and she doubts that she is in any danger. She laughs at his teasing (and pushes aside the thoughts of Debonaire and their first flirtatious encounter on his beach), “Oh, beauty is it? You are a charmer, sir. I am Rosaline.”