Page 26 of Promise of a Knight
Chapter Ten
Alaric paced the corridor outside the queen’s solar. Livid didn’t even begin to describe how he felt.
The little wench had gone and done it! The necklace that Alex had promised to stay away from had inexplicably gone missing sometime between the feast the night before and the wee hours of the morning before the queen had called her attendants.
When Queen Margaret had sobbed about it, she suspected that one of the Scots must have taken it. Revenge for her marrying their king. Alaric could think of one fiery-haired, blue-eyed Scot in particular. And now he had to question her.
His boots echoed on the floor as he charged down the hall. Down the stairs and toward the chamber where she slept. He lifted his palm ready to pound the wood into a pulp, but paused. Why should he give her a chance to hide her thievery? Instead of knocking, Alaric twisted the handle and flung open the door.
A young lady sat up in bed, hair mussed and eyes still filled with sleep, but it was not Alex. She screeched and tugged the blanket up to cover herself.
“Where is Lady Alexandra?” he demanded, entering the room and sweeping back the curtains to see if she hid behind them.
“She usually leaves in the wee hours.”
Alaric grunted. Skulking about the castle no doubt. Hiding her booty. He dropped to his hands and knees to check under the bed, then opened the wardrobe sifting through the gowns.
“Sir, please, she is not here,” the woman pleaded.
Indeed she was not and he’d frightened the poor lass. Alaric nodded, grunting again in frustration. “Keep my intrusion from her.” He didn’t want Alexandra to know he was looking for her, that would only give her a chance to come up with some excuse and to hide the missing jewels.
“Aye, sir.”
With that, he left the chamber and stormed down the stairs to the Great Hall. Just where would a traitorous Scot run off to each morning?
The crown jewels? Alaric headed in the direction of the crown room, growing angrier with each slam of his foot on the stones. How dare she lure him with her sensual body, her heady kiss, her cunning mind? The lass had drawn him into a trap and now she’d taken advantage of him being off his guard. But how had she done it? If anything, since crossing Scottish soil, he’d been more on guard more alert for foes in their midst.
He’d been looking in the wrong direction.
Besides the guard who eyed Alaric suspiciously, the crown room was empty. And the jewels were still there.
Alaric marched back in the direction he’d come, only thinking at the last minute to go up to the ramparts. If she were standing in the spot he showed her, where he’d kissed her the night before, he was going to go mad.
At the top of the ramparts, her beautiful head was surrounded by the glowing pink and orange light of the sunrise.
“Alaric,” she said, a cheerful smile on her rosy cheeks. “What a wonderful surprise.”
Her face faltered when she took note of the fury evident in his features. Bloody hell, he wanted to throttle her. Wipe the cheer from her face and demand to know why she had betrayed him.
“I gather you weren’t expecting to see me,” Alaric said, barely containing his fury.
Her smile fell and she grimaced. “As a matter of fact, I had hoped to.”
Alaric stormed toward her, gripped her by the shoulders his face coming within inches of her. Anger burned through his veins. “Stop playing these games.”
“G—games?”
Oh, the lass wasgood, she even sounded frightened.
“You broke your promise to me. You lied to me.”
Her brows scrunched with confusion. “I have done nothing of the sort! What do ye speak of?”
“More lies. Where did you hide it?” he demanded.
By God, if he had to throttle her, he would. But even the thought of marring a miniscule part of her flesh sent his gut into twisting knots of guilt.
“Alaric, ye’re scaring me. What have I hidden?” Then her face blanched white and her mouth formed an O of surprise. “The necklace,” she stated.
