Claire Delacroix (73 page)

“I will not go to Paris with you,” Alys retorted. “My situation is not so dire that playing mistress while Malvina is wife would be appealing.”

“Alys!” Burke looked exasperated. “I am not going to wed Malvina!”

“I kn-kn-knew it,” Brigid muttered to her needlework.

Reminded that they were not alone and knowing Burke would have his say, Alys led him to a far corner of the garden. “How odd. I heard you say precisely that just this morn.”

“Nay, I said I courted her. ’Tis a far cry from a proposal.”

“Oh, you play with words!” Alys shook a finger at the smug knight. “You know well enough that Aunt and Uncle believe you intend to wed her!”

“Aye, and you know well enough that I had no choice but to answer as I did.”

“Since you have been kissing Malvina.”

“I have not!” Burke was clearly frustrated and Alys found she enjoyed the sight. “The girl makes much of naught—’tis you alone I kiss.”

Alys arched a brow. “ ’Twill not happen again.”

Burke growled something uncomplimentary beneath his breath and took a determined step closer. “Alys, you must
understand that I had no option. If I had not said my intent was to win Malvina, they would have cast me from the gates! You heard your uncle. And if I was not at Kiltorren, then I could not pursue your reluctant heart.”

Alys folded her arms across her chest, resolved not to be swayed by the knight’s apparent sincerity. “So you lied.”

Burke waved off the thought. “ ’Twas not truly a lie.”

“You told them you courted Malvina, yet you do not,” Alys retorted, her demeanor stern. “That, Burke, is a lie.”

“Alys! ’Twas merely a small falsehood.”

“Small or large, a lie is a lie.”

“ ’Twas a convenience, no more, no less. You make too much of too little. ’Twas for the greater good!”

Oh, this man was too quick to turn anything to his own advantage. Alys was not prepared to let him escape so readily as that. “So, one may readily lie for the greater good.”

Burke shrugged. “Aye, when one must.”

“Aha!” Alys leaned toward him, her gaze bright. “Yet you expect me to trust you.”

“Of course I do!”

“Then how, Burke, am I to know when the greater good is being served and when you are telling me the truth?”

“Alys! You know I am a man of honor.”

“I know no such thing. Indeed, you have just confessed to being a liar.” Alys argued. ’Twas quite enjoyable to put Burke in a corner, for he always seemed to hold the upper hand.

“ ’Tis not the same,” he insisted grimly. “Not at all.”

But Alys spread her hands. “Burke, if you do not tell the truth, then how am I to know when to believe your tales?”

“But I have always told you the truth!” Burke insisted.

“By fortune or design?” Alys tilted her head to survey him. “Just now in the hall you admitted you told a falsehood in my presence.”

“Alys!” Burke snatched at her shoulders, his eyes gleaming.
She caught her breath to have his will so surely bent upon her. “I pledge to you that I have never deceived you.”

Beneath the heat of his regard, Alys’s resistance eroded dangerously. Indeed, she knew now that Burke could well have returned while she tended Heloise two years past. In this moment, she could not think of a lie he had deliberately told her, which was little help. Alys fought to keep her wits about her, but Burke smiled that wondrous smile and slid his thumbs persuasively against her shoulders.

Irresistible, indeed. Every thought seemed to have abandoned her at the first brush of those thumbs. She completely forgot her cousin’s presence as she stared into Burke’s eyes.

“Did they not give you shoes?” he murmured.

“Aye, old horrible ones.”

“Surely you could have worn them still?”

Alys seized on this practicality. She stepped away and pulled up the hem of her kirtle to reveal her ankles and bare feet. She wiggled her toes against the moss-encrusted flagstone. “But I
like
to be barefoot in the summer.”

When she glanced up, Burke’s eyes had darkened and he looked as agitated as she had felt beneath his touch. Certainly his breathing was uneven and his jaw was clenched. Alys looked back to her toes, but there seemed to be naught amiss there.

’Twas most unlike Burke to be silent.

She eyed the grim knight warily. “What is amiss?”

He looked once more to her toes, then shook his head, summoning a smile that did not mitigate his expression. “Ye gods, Alys, but I will win your trust if ’tis the last thing I do.”

“It may well be that,” she could not help but tease.

Burke grinned. “Deeds you demanded and a deed you have, Alys.”

Alys took a step back. “I thanked you already.”

His smile widened. “Most enchantingly. And you challenged
me to learn more of you, which I have done.” Burke eased closer, his manner confidential. “There was a third challenge you made, though, one that I would answer this day.”

Alys watched as Burke tapped his thumb with purpose.

“Loyalty,” he said firmly, and without further preamble. Alys caught her breath, knowing precisely what argument he made. “There is not a man alive who would not welcome a woman by his side with such fierce loyalty as burns within you, my Alys. That is
one.
”

Oh, Alys was in trouble. Burke was not even touching her and she could barely summon a coherent thought. A lie had only just fallen from his lips in the hall, a lie by his own admission, and Alys was feckless enough to fancy she could discern the difference in his manner between then and now.

She was a fool. The man knew his own assets well and plied them with merciless ease.

But she still wanted to believe him. Alys’s mouth went dry when Burke’s vivid gaze did not swerve from hers. He did not smile, but touched his index finger.

“Compassion. ’Tis the mark of a noble heart to show such concern for those weaker or in more dire straits, a sign of great character to put one’s own troubles aside to aid another. ’Tis compassion that takes you to Heloise with such dedication, Alys, and I do not miss the import of that.”

Burke paused as Alys swallowed. “That is
two.
”

God in heaven, but he was exceeding her challenge as never Alys might have imagined. A trembling began in her belly when Burke took another step, his attention fixed upon her. There was only an arm’s length left between them when he marked the next finger.

“Fortitude,” he declared softly. “And this is the greatest of them all. The same flame that melts wax forges steel, Alys. Though you have borne much in this place, still you rise to a challenge, still your spirit is undiminished, still you walk with
the dignity of a queen. ’Tis no small thing for a man to know that his lady will be undaunted by whatever fortune is cast across their path.”

But Alys felt far from strong in this moment. Indeed, her knees threatened to buckle beneath her weight. That tremble grew to a roar, yet she could not even break Burke’s gaze, let alone turn away.

“That is
three.
” Burke took the only step remaining, bringing them toe to toe. Alys tipped up her chin to hold his gaze, caught the scent of him, and saw that beguiling smile begin to curve his lips. He captured her hand within the breadth of his and raised it to his lips.

“Those are but three of the reasons I love you, Alys,” he murmured with such resolve that she could not doubt his claim. Her heart began to thunder and Alys knew she was lost.

Burke opened her hand and pressed a burning kiss to her palm with exquisite slowness. He leisurely closed her fingers over the embrace, each one in succession, the warmth of his own fingertips sliding over her skin in a deliberate caress. He met her gaze once more as he kissed her knuckles, but even then he did not release her hand.

“This change in garb favors you, but truly, Alys, I would see you garbed as richly as the queen you are.”

She would never be able to deny the man anything he asked in this moment. Isibeal’s ghost hovered more closely beside her daughter than ever before.

Even knowing that she was cursed with a wanton’s urges, even knowing that Burke had likely spoken precisely thus to Malvina just a day past, even knowing that naught but trouble would come of this in the end, Alys knew she would succumb.

Indeed, there was naught else she wanted but the man’s kiss. Burke leaned closer, his eyes gleaming. Alys found herself rising to her toes.

Then Aunt’s voice rang through the keep. “A-LYS!” that woman shouted. “Where are you? I have need of you—Alys!”

And the web of enchantment Burke had spun was instantly shredded.

Alys straightened and stepped away, all too readily imagining what Aunt would have to say of this. She pulled her fingers from Burke’s gentle grasp, but felt oddly cheated. ’Twas the only evidence of her wanton nature that she needed.

“Alys! You cannot go!” Burke protested.

“I must, I must,” Alys argued wildly, picking up her skirts to hasten across the garden. “My aunt summons me.”

Burke’s eyes flashed. “Your aunt can go to hell!”

And Alys chuckled despite herself, glancing back from the threshold. “Oh, I have no doubt that she will,” she murmured, and Burke grinned in turn.

“Stay, Alys.”

But Alys shook her head. “I dare not.”

’Twas not easy to turn her back on the knight’s appeal, but Alys managed the deed. Barely. She fled down the corridor, half fearing she would change her course if she did not run with all haste. She had come dangerously close to temptation, of that there could be no doubt.

And there was even less doubt that Burke would tempt her again.

Alys wished she knew that she would be strong enough to deny him.

Yet again Burke could fairly taste how close he had been to success. Aye, he had seen Alys’s expression soften, he had glimpsed the welcome in her golden eyes.

And he had been robbed of his lady’s kiss, no less the chance to offer for her hand with all the ceremony such an
offer demanded. Her footsteps echoed on the stone corridor, then faded to naught. Burke bowed his head, shoved his fingers through his hair, and wished that his lady could be more readily won.

But then she would not be Alys.

Indeed, he admired how she clung to her convictions. Burke knew that once Alys cleaved to him, once all her doubts and questions were set to rest, that loyalty would be his alone.

Surely that was an objective more than worth a pitched battle.

But he had come so close! Burke swore with rare thoroughness, forgetting that he was not alone. Indeed, he started when a tiny voice cleared beside him. He glanced to find Brigid hovering behind him, her cheeks burning, her gaze downcast.

“I t-t-told Alys you w-w-were here t-t-twice,” she admitted. “D-d-do not be angry. She c-c-could not have known.”

Burke’s curiosity was prompted and his annoyance faded. “Why not? Where was Alys when I returned?”

Brigid’s gaze danced to the portal, then back to Burke. She gestured cautiously toward the seat.

Burke smiled softly. “I would be delighted to join you and most pleased to hear anything you can tell me of your cousin.”

Brigid flushed scarlet at his attention, but she immediately perched on the bench. She looked up expectantly at Burke, a hopefulness in her gaze that could not be misconstrued.

And Burke understood fully.

She sought his company for the same reason he sought out Alys’s companionship. But Brigid was young, and truly she knew naught of the man to was. ’Twas but a case of girlish infatuation.

Burke had no desire to wound Brigid, so ’twould be best if
he were honest with her. False hopes could only hurt more in the end.

Burke seated himself beside her, leaving a discreet distance between them. First, he would listen to all Brigid had to say, then he would explain to her how matters lay.

Aunt’s demands were readily satisfied. Indeed, Alys had the sense her aunt merely wanted to keep track of where she was. Still puzzling over this, she was halfway back to the kitchen before she realized that Brigid had been left alone with Burke.

She gathered her kirtle in two fistfuls and quickly walked back to the garden. But naught seemed awry.