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She found the door and yanked it open. Blinking against the relatively bright light, she stepped right out into… William Darby.
Chapter Ten
“Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shineseverywhere.”
William Shakespeare,Twelfth Night, 1600
“Lady Lucy?” Williamsaid, grabbing hold of her shoulders to steady her.
“Pardon me,” she said, her hand flattening on her chest.Please let my nipples be covered.Thank God she felt fabric beneath her palms.
“What were you doing in the…wine cellar?” Cordelia asked as she hurried up to the two of them.
“Just…finding some solitude after being so smashed inside the Great Hall.”
William yanked open the door, letting in a splash of light. Lucy froze, but he didn’t say anything likeGood eve, Master BuchananorWas Lucy seducing you in here, Master Buchanan?So apparently, Greer was hiding somewhere behind the stacks of wine. “’Tis completely dark in there,” William said, letting the door shut.
“Which is why I stepped back out after a moment.”
Both Cordelia and William stared at her. “Did you two need something?” Lucy asked.
“To make certain you were well,” Cordelia said, frowning at Lucy’s neckline. “Where is your strand of pearls that the queen gifted you?”
Lucy’s hand laid against her bare chest that her sister was studying. Could Greer have left evidence of his kisses? The brush of his short beard? The memory set her heart beating harder.
“And where are your gloves?” Cordelia asked.
Her gloves? She’d taken them off to touch Greer, to feel the warmth of his body under her hands. That was before she poked him. Twice.
“I… I went to the privy.”
“Are they in your pocket?” William asked.
“Yes,” Lucy said, remembering. She shoved her scarred hand into the pocket that was tied between the two layers of her petticoats. She shook the wrinkles from them and pulled them on up to her elbows.
“Is your necklace in there too?” Cordelia asked, her lips twisted with wryness.
“No. The clasp must have broken,” Lucy said, glancing down at her decalage. Her bodice was shifted slightly to the right. When she looked up, Cordelia was studying her from head to hem. Did she look as ravished as she felt, her body still tingling from Greer’s touch?
Lucy turned away, her hands going to her bodice, fixing it, and feeling for the pearls. “The strand dropped inside my stays,” she said. She slowly pulled them up like a knobby snake. The feel of it against her skin was tantalizing. How would it feel to have Greer run it over her body?
No.He thought she was a killer. Although, she had hidden the plans about Simmons’s quest for owning land. And Greer had seen how well she could lie. Lucy sighed.
Cordelia leaned into her, touching Lucy’s forehead like she seemed to often do these days. “You look flushed,” she said.
“I… I am tired. Perhaps I should take to my bed,” Lucy said. Would Greer find her? Come to question her some more? Come to love her some more?
Cordelia took the pearls from her, inspecting the clasp. “The clasp is gone. Maybe ’tis down your bodice too.” Her brow rose in question.
Lucy slipped the broken necklace in her pocket. “I’ll check when I disrobe.” She opened her mouth, knowing a yawn would come, and it did. “I should retire now,” Lucy said.
“You’re the Lady of Misrule,” Cordelia said. “You cannot depart early. The queen expects you to make merry with her courtiers tonight and every night until Twelfth Night.” She unclasped her own set of pearls and went behind Lucy to set it around her neck. “Unless you are swooning or purging, you need to march back into the Great Hall and make people smile and laugh.” She waved her arm at the doorway as if shooing her as if Lucy were an errant child.
Lord help her. Cordelia was right. “Very well,” Lucy said, touching her sister’s pearls sitting across her collarbone. “Take me in, sister.”
Cordelia led her away, and William followed.
“There you are, jester,” the queen called as she entered the room. “We are in need of your scepter as my dear Robin, Lord Leicester, has not kissed me this night.”
