Page 10 of Keeper of the Flame: Orrick

“Nay, I guess you can’t,” agreed Corbett.

“Did you have to tell her I was a knight?”

“If not, I would have had to throw you in the dungeon for your lusty behavior. You should be glad I thought that up so quickly.”

“I don’t know what happened,” he said.

“I thought you were going to seduce her secrets out of her,” said Corbett. “I am sincerely wondering who is seducing whom.”

“She’s better at the game than I thought,” said Orrick, suddenly starting to worry. Because if she’d so easily gotten a reaction out of him and he found himself agreeing to do her bidding when all she did was bat her lashes, then he wondered what else she was capable of doing. He also wondered if, over the years, he’d forgotten the vows of a knight and how to stay in control. This was going to be challenging and Orrick hadn’t had a challenge in so long now that it excited him and frightened him all at the same time.

Chapter 3

“He kissed me, Grace. I cannot believe the nerve of him to pull me into his arms and kiss me so passionately that it made my knees quake.”

“Your knees quaked?” Lady Grace, Hope’s younger sister by three years, sat next to the hearth in their solar that night, warming her hands by the fire. Her long, red hair was tied up into a knot atop her head. She was a pretty girl and soft-spoken and very proper – nothing at all like Hope. Or so Hope had thought. “Did you like the kiss?” asked Grace, stacking another log on the fire. Hope had dismissed the help of the servants, wanting to be alone to talk about Sir Rick with her sister.

“Did I like it? How can you ask such a thing?” gasped Hope. “The man was rude and forceful. He held me tightly up against his chest and kissed me with so much passion that I thought I was going to combust. He even had the nerve to stick his tongue into my mouth! And besides that, I tried to pretend I didn’t notice but he – he was very excited,” she said in a half-whisper. She tried to choose her words carefully around her little sister.

“Oh, you mean he had an erection,” said her sister with a nod. “How big was it?” She looked over her shoulder and smiled.

“Grace! I’ve never seen you act this way before. What’s gotten into you?”

“The stable boy. Not to mention that handsome new falconer our father hired. The falconer’s was much bigger than the stable boy’s and he really knew how to use it.”

Hope’s mouth dropped open and she didn’t know what to say. Then her sister pulled the ribbons out of her hair, letting it fall loose around her shoulders. She unbuttoned several buttons on her bodice to show off cleavage that Hope hadn’t even known she had.

“Sister, you are naught but a trollop!” Hope gasped in shock. “When did this happen?”

Her sister’s eyes lit up with mischief. And when she picked up her skirts to fix her shoe, Hope noticed she didn’t wear hose. Instead her legs were bare.

“Oh, Sister, it’s nothing new,” said Grace as if it didn’t bother her at all not to have morals. “I had a little tryst with the stable boy when I’d just turned sixteen. And the falconer and I have only kissed in the hay mayhap a half-dozen times at most.”

“You’re a whore!” Hope’s hand slapped against her chest. She never would have suspected it from her meek, soft-spoken, proper sister.

“I’m not a whore and you need to stop calling me that!”

“But you just told me you coupled with two different men in the past year.”

“I never said that!”

“Aye, you did. You said the falconer’s was bigger than the stable boy’s and he really knew how to use it.”

“Their tongues! I was talking about their tongues,” said Grace. “What did you think I meant?”

“Oh, I see,” said Hope, feeling embarrassed now that she’d accused her sister of being such a strumpet.

“Hope, I assure you that I am just as much a virgin as you are.” Grace’s eyes lit up with mischief again. “Although, I might have come a little closer to making love than you have.”

They both laughed at the misunderstanding. And just when Hope had convinced herself that her sister was still somewhat meek and innocent, Grace fanned her hair out with her hands and then brushed a few specks of dust off her chest. “Do you want to sneak out of here and go find a tavern?” asked Grace. “I could go for a big horn of whisky about now.”

“You drink whisky, too?” gasped Hope. “Does Father know about all this?”

“Of course not, and he’s not going to find out either. Father never paid me any attention since he had sons to take his interest. You should know that since he ignores you, too. Ever since Mother died, we’ve been bounced around from castle to castle. He hasn’t even taken enough interest in us to betroth us, until now.”

“That’s not true, Grace.”

“Isn’t it?” she asked, raising her brows.