Secrets at Court. Blythe Gifford

but precisely sculpted, seemed to bring her very skin to life. All the strength she had amassed to fight the pain was useless against the pleasure that bloomed from the very whisper of his lips.

      Now she must act as if nothing had happened, so she could pretend it had not.

      She sank down on to the fallen tree with a sigh of relief.

      ‘You must be tired,’ he said, his words quick and meaningless.

      And she, who never admitted weakness, nodded, with a weak smile.

      ‘Anne. Look at me.’

      She wanted to pretend it had not happened. He would not.

      So she lifted her chin and met his eyes, daring him to acknowledge it. ‘I forgive you.’ Dismissive words. As if she had been affronted, instead of moved.

      ‘I did not ask to be forgiven.’

      Only his gaze touched her now, but that was enough. The heat in his eyes reignited the desire she would not, must not feel.

      ‘What do you want, then?’ Unable to hold her voice steady. ‘To take me out of pity?’

      ‘Pity?’ Was that anger in his voice? ‘Is that what you think?’

      What she thought was to push him so far away that he could not recognise her weakness. ‘What I think,’ she began, ‘is that you thought to steal a kiss, or more, from a vulnerable maiden.’

      That would explain it. She should have realised there could be no other reason. He must have thought her easy prey for his lust.

      ‘You are wrong.’

      She wanted to be. Oh, she wanted to be.

      ‘Why else would you have lured me here? You knew I could not keep up with the chase. You knew we would fall behind and be alone.’ All things she had known before she even mounted.

      ‘Have you met so much unkindness in your life?’

      Startled at first. Then, ashamed. She shook her head. ‘No. My lady has been all that is kind when I cannot do...what others can.’

      ‘I cannot dance well enough to take the floor before the King. It makes me no lesser man.’

      Her eyes widened at his words. Could any man, any person, look at her and not see her as a lesser being?

      Yet she saw in his eyes things she had never seen in another man’s. Desire, yes, that was remarkable enough. Coupled with anger and a touch of...admiration. Not the pity or disgust she so frequently encountered.

      More often though, once they knew who and what she was, they tried not to see her at all. They simply let their eyes slide over her without stopping, as if she were a stone or a tree. Lonely sometimes, yes. But being invisible could be a benefit, as well.

      ‘I am sorry,’ she began, ‘to attack you when you were only being...kind.’ What other word to use?

      Something in his gaze shifted. A decision reached. ‘Your first notion was the right one. It did not happen. Now, we will sit and speak of unimportant things until you are rested enough to return.’

      She did not want to speak with him at all, but she must do as her lady asked and stay close to him, even at the risk of—

      No. She straightened her back. There was no risk. She had lived her whole life without a man. That would not change because a passing warrior stole a kiss.

      * * *

      Nicholas settled himself at the other end of the log and sat in silence, relieved when she did not speak, as he struggled to put ground and sky back in their accustomed places.

      Fool that he was, he had kissed her. And when he did, the world turned upside down, exposing the weakness he thought safely buried. The same weakness that had blinded his father to the truth about the woman he married.

      Yet she thought he wanted only to dally with her and then cast her aside. He should have let her think so. Would that he were so unmoved.

      This woman had a way of flinging him from kindness to anger to desire and back before he could understand what had happened. But, it was clear, she wanted an entanglement no more than he did.

      Why?

      At the other end of the log, she sat, back straight, studying the shaded shelter as if she might be forced to describe it later. Deprived of her accustomed needle, she tapped her restless fingers together without looking at them. He wondered whether she even knew she did so.

      What was she thinking now?

      He was a man of action, yet he had learned that understanding another man’s reasons and impulses was the key to gaining his co-operation. The man who sold wine strictly for money could be persuaded to sell for the right price. The man who was more concerned about his castle’s protection might be persuaded to trade in exchange for his loyalty.