Harper had just walked into her room when she heard voices in the hallway. She immediately opened the door and saw Mrs. Patty coming out of the room next to hers and Sarai and Delilah coming from opposite directions to meet at the center of the aisle in front of her room. Mrs. Patty gave her a surprised look when she saw her. Delilah was flustered and sweaty, as if she’d been running.

“Hi,” she said to Sarai and Delilah. “Going to bed?”

“Yes. You should, too. You look tired,” Sarai told her with a smile. “Mrs. Patty, I’d love some tea if you can get it to my room, please.”

“Sure thing, dear. Can I get you anything, Ms. Burns?” She peeked into Harper’s room as if she expected to see Sebastian coming out of it. She wasn’t that much of a ho.

Harper glanced at Delilah, noticing the evil glare she gave her. “No. I’m okay. That walk with Sebastian through the gardens was perfect.”

Why did she do that? She wasn’t a petty person, but Delilah got on her last nerve with her evil looks and continuous flirting with Sebastian.

After they left, she went back into her room. There, she sat in a big comfy chair and stared at the fireplace. She turned the air conditioning full blast in the bedroom. Once she did that, she didn’t feel like it was such a crazy idea to turn on the fire. She sat there and watched it for a while.

Her cell phone was on her bed when Sebastian walked her to her room. After the kiss outside, he’d kept his hands to himself. He had a lot more self-control than she did.

Had her phone not been there, she would have a great reason to think of herself as a prisoner. Now, she could technically ask for help. She saw the missed calls from Meghan. Then the text messages where Meg said she'd been called by Sebastian and had been reassured Harper was fine. Now her questions were all about what she was doing with Sebastian and was she getting her freak on.

There wasn’t a single call or text from Christian. Nothing. No apology and nothing to explain what he’d done or why. She dialed his number but it went straight to voicemail. After a scathing message, she hung up feeling more wound up.

Sebastian reminded her of a wild animal. If she left, she didn’t doubt for a second he’d find Christian and tear him limb from limb. She still didn’t know what Christian had done, but the fact was, it was bad. It had to be for Christian to trade her.

She got up to go to bed and a strange noise stopped her in her tracks. It was a strange rattling. It was coming from her bed. She quickly rushed back, having a very bad feeling about what the rattling was and pressed the button on the wall that called security.

“Ms. Burns, how may we help you?”

“There’s something in my bed,” she told the man, and opened the bedroom door, ready to make a run for it.

“We’ll send someone up to check it out.”

She stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind her, moving to the other side of the wall in case whatever it was tried to slide under the door. She had a sick feeling she knew exactly what the rattling was. A snake. Though rattlesnakes weren’t common in the area, one could be easily bought from a snake farm. Those were very normal to find all over the state.

The guy she’d met earlier that morning, Kellen, came running down the hallway, a deep frown on his face. “What’s wrong?”

She glanced at her door and then back at him. “I heard rattling. Like a snake. In the bed.”

He nodded. She saw the doubt in his eyes, but thankfully, he didn’t call her a liar. Instead, he called someone else and asked them to bring something she hadn’t quite understood.

A second guy showed up with some weird hand grabby tool and a mesh bag. Both men went into her bedroom, shutting the door behind them. After a few minutes, they came out with the mesh bag shaking and one of the guys left, leaving Kellen behind.

“It was a snake, right?”

He nodded. “It’s a good thing you didn’t pull the covers. It was big. I don’t know how it got in there. We don’t really see rattlesnakes in the castle.”

She frowned. “Um, could someone have put it there?”

“Why?” He sounded so surprised, she had to laugh.

She rolled her eyes. “To kill me. That’s usually why you put snakes in people’s beds. Though, I gotta say, I think whoever did it is lacking creativity.”

He grinned and shook his head. “I think we’ll have you sleep in another room tonight, just in case. I want to make sure there are no other threats in the room.”

She nodded. “Lead the way.”

He took her down the hall to the first floor. She swore they were nearing Sebastian’s library, but didn’t say anything. Then they made a turn and Kellen opened a door for her. A woman was in there putting fresh linens on the bed and two men were checking the room. They both nodded at Kellen.

“Everything is good in here. You should be fine to sleep.”

She thanked him and watched the men go. Then she laughed. The guys had treated her like she was a family member and they needed to protect her. It was nice and a little daunting. Would that be her life if she and Sebastian had a relationship?

Whoa! Down, girl. The guy wants you to have his kids and give him a booty call and you’re already marrying him? Not cool.

She decided to go to bed. It was safer.