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fallen among the Rom, my lord. My home is on wheels.’
    Fallen among the Rom…
    Which made it sound as if he’d come here through some misadventure. Try as he might, he couldn’t remember what that could have been.
    â€˜Had I been overcome by fever?’
    â€˜And a blow to the head.’ With her thumb she touched a place on his temple, causing him to flinch.
    The movement was too sudden, setting off the now-familiar peal of anvils against his skull. He closed his eyes, knowing that all he could do was endure until the pain and the nausea had faded.
    â€˜I’m sorry. I should have known better. I can give you something for the pain.’
    She began to turn, but before she could complete the motion, his fingers fastened around her wrist. ‘No.’
    He’d had experience with the drugs the doctors gave to deaden pain. And far more memorable experiences with learning to do without them. He could better endure the ache in his head than endure that again.
    Her eyes had widened at his command, but she didn’t argue. Nor did she pull her arm away.
    â€˜As you wish,’ she said simply and then waited.
    After a moment Rhys found the presence of mind to release her. Even after she’d gone, however, taking the candle with her, it seemed he could still feel beneath his fingertips the cool, smooth skin that covered the slender wrist he’d grasped.
    And despite his exhaustion and the Gypsy’s potions, it was a long time before he could sleep.
    Â 
    Nadya blew out the candle she carried and set it down on the floor beside the bed in her grandmother’s caravan. Angeline was already asleep there, snuggled under the covers like a tired puppy.
    Nadya lifted the piled quilts and slipped under them. She pulled the little girl to her, relishing the warmth of her body. Her chin settled atop the child’s head, but she didn’t close her eyes for a long time. Instead, she stared into the darkness, thinking about the Englishman.
    Stephano’s ultimatum didn’t worry her. After all, he would be away for the next few days—as he had been for most of the spring and summer. Although her half-brother certainly had the authority he’d bragged about tonight, his own concerns had kept him from exercising the kind of control on the kumpania ’s activities that her father had enforced. Besides, given the fact the gaujo was coherent tonight, his recovery would, in her experience, occur very quickly now.
    It wasn’t the possibility that she couldn’t get him out of the encampment fast enough to suit Stephano that kept her awake, staring into the darkness long after her daughter had fallen back into the innocent sleep of childhood. It wasrather, she finally conceded, the probability that he would be gone long before her half-brother returned to see if his orders had been obeyed.
    Why should she care if the gaujo she’d never laid eyes on until a week ago disappeared from her life? England was full of gadje . And most of the ones Nadya had met were more than eager to further their acquaintance with her.
    So what could it possibly matter if she never saw this one again? she asked herself with a small shrug of disdain. Feeling that motion, Angeline turned, settling more closely against her. As she returned the little girl’s embrace, Nadya reiterated the mantra she’d only tonight found necessary to formulate.
    She had everything she needed. A child she loved. Respect in her community. More than enough money to meet her needs and the capacity for earning more.
    Everything, she told herself again, she could possibly want.
    Even as the thought formed, she knew it for the lie it was. She had the same physical needs of every other woman. And, though the capability to assuage her needs was always at hand, both here in camp and elsewhere, she had so far chosen not to avail herself of those opportunities.
    More fool you. If you have an itch for a man, there are far