‘You want to know what the King wanted of me. You don’t wantme.’
Some emotion flitted across his eyes like a jagged cloud. His intensity towards her vanished and he shrugged. ‘You cannot blame me for trying.’
Oh, yes, she could. If she hadn’t already wished him to hell, she was doing so now. Callous, cruel, arrogant... She was glad his words had cut so quickly into her softening feelings. Her tears had dried and she could leave without another embarrassing scene.
‘I owe you no words, no explanation,’ she retorted. ‘I owe you less than that—I owe you nothing.’
‘Oh, do you?’ he replied. ‘In front of all those courtiers you would have fainted from exertion if I had not been holding you up.’
Let him think it had been exertion and not his presence that had caused her to feel faint.
‘You cannot keep me here for ever.’
His stance changed, became more relaxed. He had that air of boredom she had seen in the other courtiers. But Hugh didn’t fool her.
Oh, he was dressed as ornately as any courtier. The green of his tunic, woven very fine, lay perfectly over his chest and tapered slightly at his waist. His tan leggings fitted seamlessly over his legs and his boots gleamed new. Yet none of his frippery hid what he had become. He was too unyielding, too rugged to look like anything but what he was: a warrior.
She had never thought of him that way, although he had trained for knighthood all his life. She had watched him broaden into a man, but he had always been Hugh...a girl’s infatuation.
Now he was something more. Something she didn’t understand.
‘I do not need for ever,’ he said. ‘I need enough time for you to tell me what you did with the King.’
‘Did?’ she repeated. ‘What Ididwith the King? Don’t you mean “spoke of”?’
‘Do I?’
He would not let her avoid this conversation. She had wanted—no,neededto confide in someone. And here was Hugh, asking her to do so. As if she would ever confide in him again.
‘He congratulated me on my winning,’ she said.
‘Something more happened; the King doesn’t just share pleasantries in his private chamber.’
‘Nothing of importance.’
‘Your blushing gives you away. You were never good at lying.’
She’d have to get good at it. Her sisters’ lives were at stake.
‘It is of little consequence for you.’
His eyes narrowed and he abandoned his appearance of nonchalance. ‘Maybe you haven’t changed. I see you have kept your stubbornness.’
She’d have preferred to keep her pride, but it hadn’t take long in Hugh’s presence for her to know that it was still in tatters.
‘I do not see how it concerns you.’
‘The King and his friendshipsalwaysmatter to me.’
‘I am hardly his friend.’
He eyes hardened with a heat that slid along her face, taking in her eyes, the slant of her jaw, and resting on her lips. She felt his eyes there, felt his words as he answered.
‘No, I supposefrienddoesn’t quite capture your role in the King’s life, does it?’ His eyes were back on hers and the heat was gone. ‘But I refuse to think you’ve changed that much. Whatever the King wants of you, you won’t be able to do it.’
Shock caused her to ask, ‘How do you know what the King wants of me?’
‘It isn’t hard to guess. You were in his private chamber for over an hour.’
