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With the crown of pearls nestled in her piled curls, Lucy looked royal indeed. Royal, absolutely beautiful, and no one with whom he should trifle. He looked back to the shallow game bowl filled with nuts, raisins, and dancing blue flames. “If ye left your hand there, it would burn, but ye won’t feel pain if ye move swiftly. ’Tis less heat than a candle flame.”
“Make way for the Lady of Misrule to play,” one of the ladies in the small crowd called. People jostled back so Lucy could step up to the table. Several of the court ladies whispered, their heads bending together as they looked at Lucy’s gloved hands. Her scars were not a total secret. Perhaps the queen didn’t care as long as they were covered.Mo chreach.
Lucy took a deep breath and stepped closer. Did the flames remind her of the pain she’d endured under her mother’s attempts to burn away her marks? Or the terrible accident with hot fat?
He leaned near her ear. “I can make a game out of carrying ye away,” he whispered.
She gave a little shake of her head as she stared at the flames.
“You must take off your glove to reach or it doesn’t count,” said Lady Anne. She smiled sweetly, but there was a pinch to her eyes that made her look devilish.
Lucy plucked off the glove of her left, unblemished hand. Balling it up, she tossed it across the circle. It hit Anne in the face. “Thank you for holding it for me,” Lucy said with such lightness that it sounded sincere. Everyone laughed at the surprised look on Anne face.
Stealing herself, Lucy pointed. “I will have that almond in the middle.” She glanced back at Greer. He nodded. Lucy turned back and quickly plunged her hand through the flame, snatching the almond out. She laughed as she held it in the air, and everyone around them clapped. “’Tis not even hot, merely warm,” she said and popped the almond in her mouth. “Delicious.”
Several ladies removed their gloves, raising them in the air to be the next brave lady to play. Greer stepped before Lady Anne. “I will return her glove.”
Anne, having recovered from her embarrassment, smiled coyly up at Greer. “Certainly, Lord Highlander.” She held it out for him to take, but when he pulled it, she wouldn’t let go. “For a price,” she said. “A kiss.”
Without hesitation, Lucy held her scepter over Anne’s head. “The kissing ball proclaims this lady demands a kiss.” Before Greer could even turn to Lucy to find out what she was doing, three men in the crowd pushed forward. A blond-haired fellow kissed Anne’s right cheek. A bald man with a cap kissed her left, and a dark-skinned lord held Anne’s arm. He boldly slid her glove down and turned her arm so the soft underside was exposed. He kissed her arm, his gaze catching hers with obvious invitation.
The surprise that loosened Anne’s hold on the glove turned to a radiant smile over the attention, and Greer easily pulled the glove away. He turned to Lucy. “I think ye better lower that kissing ball.”
“Before we are given a carnal display,” William said, walking up to them. He sounded like a grumpy miser.
Lucy lowered the scepter. “Who knew such power could be gained with a ball of holly, mistletoe, and bells.” Those around her laughed. “We could send kissing scepters to war!”
William nodded to the Snapdragon game. “Have the almonds and raisins been inspected for poison?”
Around the table, the ladies who had raised their bare hands for the next try lowered them. “Ye certainly have a way of dampening the festivities, Darby,” Greer said and gestured for Lucy to move away.
“I supplied the nuts and raisins for the two gaming tables,” Lord Walsingham said as they passed them.
Greer looked over his shoulder. “And I’m sure Master Darby will explain how if they were tainted, a different color would probably infuse the flames.”
“What color would the flames be?” one lady asked, stopping William from following.
“Wouldn’t poison be burned off them anyway?”
“How about the brandy, Lord Walsingham? Was that tested?”
Greer left the questions behind for William and Walsingham as he escorted Lucy toward the floor where Elizabeth and Leister were dancing the scandalous La Volta dance with several other couples. It was considered scandalous because the man held the lady around the waist, lifting her with the help of a knee under her arse. The man would turn the lady, setting her down. The dance had come from the continent and had moved up to Edinburgh court too. Greer and the other men of Lord Moray’s court had learned the intricate footwork.
“Do you dance La Volta?” Lucy asked Greer when they stopped on the outskirts of the cleared floor where Elizabeth and Leister held all the attention.
“I know the steps, but I don’t dance,” Greer said, using his sternest voice.
“As Lady of Misrule, I could order you to.”
He met her teasing gaze with narrowed eyes. “And take the attention away from the queen and Leister?”
“’Tis allowed at Christmastide,” she said and indicated the floor. “Or have I found something that frightens the fierce Highlander?”
Mo chreach!Lucy was going to make him dance before this room of judgmental arses.
“Ye are still punishing me, aren’t ye?”
“Yes,” she said, giving him a sweet smile.
