Page 15 of Promise of a Knight
Chapter Six
The ladies laughing and gossiping ahead of Alex echoed off the stone walls of Dalkeith Castle. They were like a group of tittering ninnies. None of them said anything of significance and she found herself grinding her teeth to keep from saying such, whenever one tried to include her in the conversation.
Not wanting to be perceived as an upstart, or to be cast aside by the very group she needed to remain close to in order to be near the necklace, she smiled and offered her own nonsense replies.
What was wrong with her? Just the day before she’d enjoyed those very same conversations. But that was before the kiss. Before her world had opened up. Before she’d been interrupted in her course—a course she was actually glad to be derailed from.
Except that it pushed her further from her goal, and soon she was certain to receive a missive from her father demanding to know what was taking her so long, and perhaps more threats from her mother of a life not worth living.
Today, the women spoke of nothing beyond ribbons, shoes, jewels and who was flirting with whom. They complained only of the sourness of the wine and the extra sugar added to the plums. Postulating on if the king would come to the princess’ chamber now or wait until it was official. Not one of them had said anything of significance that Alex could give to her father in hopes he’d find the information useful even if she never returned the necklace.
Of course, then there was the warring within her own mind.
Alex didn’t want to be a traitor. She didn’t want to hurt their future queen or their king. She rather liked little Margaret. Perhaps a youthful queen was what Scotland needed. And with the newly written treaty hopefully there would be less warring.
But even thinking such thoughts went against everything her parents had ever taught her. It went against everything they expected of her while she was here.
Siding with her queen and king meant going against her parents, and yet if she sided with her parents, she’d be considered a traitor to her entire country.
And then there was Sir Alaric.Oh, Alaric…
Alex sighed heavily. She was certainly going to have to repent for her wanton kiss. For the brazen way she flirted with the braw knight. But he was so handsome, his lips so inviting, the spark of deviousness in his eyes spoke to the part of her that yearned to go against the rules. And she couldn’t stop reliving the moment in her mind!
Alaric was a bad influence on her.
Yet, she’d been the one to kiss him and not the other way around.
“Are ye all right?” one of the Scottish ladies popped her head out of the princess’ chamber door.
Zounds!She’d been standing in the corridor, staring at the stone walls, while everyone else had already gone inside to help put the princess to bed.
Alex put on her most cheerful smile, gave a little laugh and waved away her hesitance as though it were some flighty mistake. “Dear me, I must have had a little too much wine.”
The lady laughed. “Haven’t we all?”
She disappeared back into the room and Alex considered running down the hall. Leaving. If only there were some distraction to get the princess and her ladies out of her room. Then she’d sneak back in with Sir Alaric none the wiser as he would have assumed they’d all gone to bed.
Alex slipped into the princess’ chamber, her eyes drawn to the wardrobe where she’d hidden the pretty, wooden chest. The necklace. So close and yet so far away.
Summoned to the princess, she helped unpin her sleeves along with the other ladies working to get Margaret out of her sumptuous clothes.
“Will you remove my necklace?” Margaret asked sweetly.
Alex smiled, nodded, all the while thinking. She had planned to remove the other one just an hour before—albeit from a wooden box and not a body.
“I’m so sleepy! And excited all at the same time,” Margaret exclaimed to her ladies.
Alex giggled and gossiped some more, not really paying attention to what she was saying or what anyone else said for that matter. All she kept thinking was there had to be a way to get them out of here. Perhaps when the princess broke her fast with the king in the morning—
A knock had them all jolting.
“I’ll get it.” Alex opened the door, the king himself stood in the hallway, tall and broad and handsome. “Majesty.”
Alex and the rest of the ladies curtsied and the room fell silent as he passed by her and walked toward Princess Margaret.
“May I kiss ye goodnight?” King James asked the princess.
She stood straighter, her ladies falling back. Standing only in her undergown, she nodded, her cheeks growing pink.
