Page 73 of The Knight's Pledge
“How?”
“I have no bloody idea.” She sighed. “I’m sure Winnie put two and two together when I didn’t come to bed until dawn.”
“You could have been with Gorman,” he argued.
“In the stables with everyone else? Or out in the rain?”
“You could have been just…talking. Late.”
“Naked?” she insisted. “I’d put my shirt on inside out before I left your chamber. She had to point it out to me beforewe went below.”
“I see,” he allowed. “But she didn’t tell the others? Or signal to them. You know what I mean.”
“Apparently you and I werespeakingto each other differently in the common room this morning,” shesaid stiffly.
“Were we?”
She shrugged. “I don’t think so.”
“Neither do I.”
“Well, any matter, it was noticed.” She looked over at him. “Has anyone said anything to you?”
“No,” he said. “They’re all…lookingat me, though.”
Effie nodded and pressed her lips together. “Well, they’re not only looking at me. James Rose is ready to place me in the stocks as afallen woman.”
“He’s a shit.”
“He can be,” Effie agreed. “When someone he lovesis being hurt.”
“Will he tellGorman, then?”
“No,” she answered right away. “As prickly as he is over it, he wouldn’t interfere in that way. Gorman’s like a father to him. I thought I waslike a mother.”
They rode on for a bit in silence before Lucan spoke again. “Willyou tell him?”
“I hadn’t planned on it, originally,” she admitted. “Since it will neverhappen again.”
“Won’t it?”
She whipped her head around to look at him, and his handsome face genuinely seemed confused.
“No,” she scoffed, her cheeks tingling. “Of course not.” She faced forward again, ignoring the tumbling in her stomach. “But since everyone else suspects it, it’s only a matter of time. I’d prefer to wait until we have recovered George—Gorman has enough on his mind right now.”
Lucan said nothing, and after several minutes her curiosity got the better of her and she glanced at him. “What is it?”
“Hmm?” he said, as if she disturbed him from his thoughts. “Oh, yes. Certainly. You should wait.”
Effie felt her brows knit together. “Oh.” She bit her tongue, pressed her lips together. But in the end couldn’t seem to stop herself from turning toward him again. “Did you think that we would—?”
“No, not really.Of course not.”
“Good.” She faced the road again, noticing that they had fallen a bit behind the caravan. “It was stupid.”
“Stupid,” he agreed.
They looked over at each other in the same instant and then quickly looked away again.
