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“Lady Elara will be angry when you mention this to her. She was quite clear about not doing so,” Gareth said.

“I will speak to Elara later. She asked that I meet her before the meal, though I do not know the reason.”

“Elara.” Darien smiled. “She is no longer Lady Elara to you.”

Again, Alden did not respond.

Roland stopped before him. The look he gave Alden said he was angry at being left in the dark but grateful to be brought into the fold. “Tell us what to do.”

“Listen,” Alden said. “Watch.”

“If you have occasion to glean any information from the maid,” Gareth added, “do so in a way that does not alert her to our inquiries.”

“I should not simply ask her, ‘Are you the traitor?’” Roland asked dryly.

“Perhaps not.” The corners of Gareth’s mouth rose.

The men fell silent. The consequences of Alden’s revelation likely weighed heavily on both Roland and Darien, who had come to accept, reluctantly, that every move they made at Castle Blackwood could very well be watched by someone sympathetic to the king’s cause.

“We must find them,” Roland said, echoing Alden’s thoughts.

“We will,” he said, determined to do so. Their very lives were at stake.

Chapter

Twenty

She was waiting for him.

Dressed in her darkest, simplest gown, when Alden knocked, Elara opened the door.

“We are going back down,” she said. But Alden did not move.

“I will go anywhere you wish me to. But the forfeit to do so is a kiss.”

She needed no further prompting. Elara fell into his arms, Alden pulling her into him. His lips moved over hers, warm and increasingly familiar. His large hand rubbed circles on her back, making Elara nearly forget why she had asked for him to come early.

Reluctantly pulling away, she told him now. “There is a gallery

above the great hall. We can get to it from here. ’Twas used once, I assume, for musicians. I wish to watch the maid’s every movement.”

“And my role?” he asked. “To watch you?”

She grinned. “Nay, to observe alongside me.”

Still, he did not move. “You could have easily done so without me, Elara. Admit you wish for my presence. To press up against me.” He pulled her close once again. “In that tight space.”

Groaning, she let herself be drawn in, temporarily.

“I wish for you to stand guard,” Elara clarified. “If I wanted to be close to you, I’d do so right here.”

“I do not believe you,” he said, kissing her nose. “But will come anyway.”

With that, Alden turned and headed back down the stairs. For a moment, she did not follow. That final kiss, not even on her lips. Somehow, it felt more intimate. Why it should give her pause when the things they’d done over these past days were so much more than a simple kiss on her nose, Elara was not certain.

Shaking off the feeling, she followed him and guided Alden to the gallery. They would not be making their way all the way out, into the hall where musicians would play and be seen by all those below. Instead, they would remain to the side, in the shadows.

“If you stay there,” she said, pointing to a spot where Alden could see both the stairs they’d climbed and a bit of the hall below, “you can see anyone who might be coming up here. I do not think it will happen as this remains unused, but to be certain . . . it would not do well for us to be found up here together.”