He couldn’t fathom their stares until Simon joined him.
“What did you do to Caledonia last night?” Simon asked.
Sin grabbed a raw apple from a platter on one of the tables, then led Simon toward the stairs. “Nothing.”
“You didn’t murder her in her bed?”
He paused mid step and glared at his friend. “What sort of question is that?”
“Don’t be angry at me. That’s the story everyone is bantering about this morning. It seems Henry ordered Aelfa to bring him your bed sheets. Now everyone believes you must have cut her head off for there to have been so much blood on them.”
Sin set his jaw, and said nothing in response. He’d never taken a virgin before so in an effort to make it appear he had slept with his wife, he’d cut his own arm and used his blood for the sheets. Apparently, he’d used too much.
“So what happened?” Simon prompted.
He ignored Simon as he gazed up the stairs to see Callie and Jamie coming down them. She wore her plaid around her saffron kirtle again. Her hair was plaited down both sides of her face and her cheeks and eyes were bright this morning.
The woman took his breath away and made him ache to finish what the two of them had started the night before.
When she saw him, she smiled a smile that made him instantly hot. Hard. One that reminded him all too well she’d fallen asleep before he had found any peace whatsoever.
“Good morning, my husband.”
His stomach clenched at the word. “My lady. How do you feel?”
“Still a bit of an ache in my head, but fine otherwise. You?”
He looked around at the courtiers who gawked at her as if she were a ghost. “Never better, my lady.”
Her smile widened.
Jamie ran past him to show Simon a handful of string.
“Are we leaving now?” Callie asked.
“I thought you would want to.”
“Aye. The sooner, the better.”
“Then come. We’re all packed and ready.”
Callie reached to take his arm, but he pulled away. Disheartened, but far from daunted, she took a deep breath and followed him through the hall toward the door.
Henry met them outside the hall, his face grim. “You be careful,” he said to Sin. “I don’t want your head to come back to me in a sennight.”
Sin nodded, then helped her to mount her horse.
As he reached for Jamie, the king stopped him. “The boy stays here as guarantee that no harm will befall you.”
Jamie screeched out a denial.
Callie opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, Sin spoke. “The boy goes with us.”
“Are you mad?” Henry demanded. “Without the child, there’s no guarantee of your safety.”
“The boy goes with us.” The sharpness of Sin’s tone amazed her. She doubted if Henry would allow any man, save her husband, to use that tone without putting irons on him.
“I assure you,” Sin said more calmly, “I can handle myself even against the devil himself, but I will not leave an innocent boy here with no protector.”
