A Spy at the Highland Court

by Barclay, Celeste

  Lucky bastard. Perhaps I will find a widow after all. It has been far too long, and my hand is far from satisfying.

  As the thought crossed his mind, the blonde woman once more floated back to the surface.

  Why do I keep thinking of her? She was intriguing, but I doubt I will see much more of her.

  Ric inched a door open and peered within another chamber. He could hear soft voices, but he could not see anyone within what looked like a scriptorium. He peered back over his shoulder and eased into the room, pressing the door closed silently. He listened for the direction in which the voices came. He crept toward the Mary altar with candles flickering in the draft of air his entry created. The eyes painted on the icons of long-dead saints seemed to follow him as he moved closer to the wall that divided the chamber where he stood from wherever the conversation was taking place.

  “The king is still trying to discover what happened to Elizabeth Fraser’s carriage. Hopefully the last snow has fallen and spring has taken hold. He and his brother sent men out to recover it, but there was little left after sitting exposed during the entire winter. They found the broken axle.”

  A man’s muffled voice carried through the thin partition wall. It was made of wood but was little more than a screen. Ric realized the chamber he was in had been divided at some point, and the wooden partition had been placed rather than summoning a mason to install a stone wall.

  “You had better hope they don’t find anything else that can tie that crash back to either of us.”

  A second man’s voice, more strident than the first, came through the partition clearly. Ric smirked at the irony that the man who was more concerned about being caught would not be concerned enough to keep his voice down.

  “Shh. You know the walls in this part of the keep are not stone. Someone will hear you.”

  Ric’s smirk widened as the first man read his mind.

  “No one but that featherbrained Dunbar lass comes around here. And I know the ladies are with the queen in the royal antechamber.”

  Ric’s smirk slipped when he heard the surname he recognized from earlier that day. He was aggravated by the lady’s description, suspecting it was the same woman he met in the market.

  “Don’t underestimate Isabella. She may be focused on her pet projects that the queen allows her to entertain, but she is astute. And beyond that, her clan is ever loyal to the king. She would not hesitate to hear that someone plotted to kill the king’s brother’s bride. We may want Edward Bruce to return to Ireland, but we don’t want the king to know we have a hand in it.”

  The voices moved away, and Ric was left wondering what the men meant. Last he had heard, the Scottish king’s younger brother was still in Ireland and had not left in over a year. The conversation made it seem as though the man was married and living in Scotland.

  “The king has two brothers named Edward. One by blood and one his family took in.”

  Ric’s head jerked up as he recognized the hushed voice.

  “Lady Isabella?” Ric whispered.

  “Yes. We seem to have caught each other where neither of us should be.”

  Ric watched as the figure materialized from a shadow nearly within arm’s length of where he stood. As she stepped closer, he caught a waft of her honeysuckle scent, and he wondered how he could have missed it when it seemed to fill the chamber now. She put her finger to her lips and stepped beside him, pointing to the wall. She used the same finger to point to a notch in the wood that was hollow. She touched her eye and then pointed to the notch again. Ric leaned forward, but the other chamber was empty. He leaned away, but Isabella shook her head and pointed again, angling her finger. Ric looked once more in time to see two men leaving the chamber next door. He did not know who either of them were, but he had a memory for faces.

  “What are you doing in here?” Isabella demanded, their conspiratorial time suddenly over.

  “I wandered in here because I thought I smelled incense.” Which he did, now that he looked around once more. “I thought perhaps I’d found the chapel.”

  Isabella narrowed her eyes before nodding.

  “You are in the wrong wing of the castle. But I meant what are you doing inside the keep?”

  “The king invited me.”

  Isabella’s green-gray eyes swept over him, assessing him, just as they had in the market. And just as before, Ric’s body responded. This time, he was thankful that they remained in the shadows, because his body refused to listen when he told it to relax. It was not just Isabella’s eyes and pale hair that caught his attention. It was her plump lower lip that he found himself suddenly craving to nibble. He wanted a better view of the gown that was cut modestly but gave him an enticing hint of a bosom that did not seem to match her willowy frame.

  “Why are you staring at me?” Isabella asked bluntly.

  “I was wondering the same about you.”

  “But I asked first.”

  “So it wasn’t just the merchant that you’re testy with.”

  “I know you heard most of my conversation with the man, but there was little I could do to shoo you away, lest I bring more attention to my negotiation.”

  “Shoo me? I’m rather large to be treated like a gnat.”

  Once again, Isabella’s eyes raked over him, and Ric’s cock twitched. He was thankful that his surcoat hung to his mid-thigh and was loose over his bulge, or he was sure Isabella would be questioning that too.

  “Too large to be inconspicuous, certainly. Please excuse me. I came to gather something I left here earlier.”

  Ric’s hand caught her waist as he moved to block her. A current raced up his arm, and Isabella’s gasp told him she felt the same. Their eyes locked as Ric’s hand tightened slightly, and she turned more toward him.

  “Isa, it’s dangerous to be moving about the castle alone, to be in chambers like this alone. What if those men had heard you and came to investigate? What if some other man found you here alone?”

  Isabella’s eyes flared at the shortening of her name, but she had to admit that she preferred it to the usual diminutive.

  “That’s not my name,” she breathed. “People call me Bella.”

  Ric stepped back, letting go of her when he heard that name. He shook his head, refusing to associate the name of the repugnant woman he could not seem to escape with a woman whose honeysuckle scent was drawing him in like a drunken bee.

  “I know someone I do not care for, and her name is Bella. I could never think of you as such.”

  Isabella’s mouth formed a perfect circle, shocked that he mentioned a woman she could only assume was a former lover and that he said he thought of her.

  “I like Isa better,” she murmured. “It’s less pressure.”

  Ric stepped back toward her, and his knees brushed against her skirts.

  “I understand why people would call you that. The name suits you. I just don’t want to think of someone else when I’m looking at you.”

  “I don’t even know your name. We shouldn’t have spoken in the market and certainly not here. We haven’t been introduced.”

  Ric grinned as her sense of propriety tried to gain a foothold, but she did not push him away or try to move past him.

  “Dedric Hage, but those who know me best call me Ric.”

  “Sir Dedric,” Isabella spoke as if she was testing out the name on her tongue.

  “It’s Ric, Isa.” Ric wondered if she heard the same beseeching need in his voice as he did.

  She nodded, then shook her head.

  “But I don’t know you at all, so how can I be someone who knows you best?”

  Ric shrugged as his hand reached for her waist again.

  “That’s what I want you to call me,” he admitted.

  “Ric,” she exhaled.

  “Isa.”

  Ric watched as her pupils dilated, and he recognized the look in her eyes as he was sure she saw the same thing in his. He knew he should pull away, leave her where he found her, and mind
his own business—which was spying on the king—but none of that was as strong as the pull he felt bringing him closer to her. He slid his arm around Isa’s waist, and she stepped into his embrace.

  “You shouldn’t be here alone,” Ric said for a second time.

  “I know. I can never be sure who I might encounter.” Isa placed her hands on his arms and gasped as the muscles jumped under her touch. She looked down at where her hands rested before looking back into Ric’s topaz eyes. She felt herself falling into the depths of the golden starbursts that ringed his pupil, and the tip of her tongue pressed between her lips.

  “Promise me you won’t do this again. Even if you’ve done so since long before I arrived. Isa, it makes me frightened for you.”

  “You, frightened?” She attempted to scoff, but her voice caught as his sincerity registered.

  “Yes. I find the idea of you coming to harm bothers me more than I can justify.”

  Isa slid her hands up his arms, feeling her fingers wrap around his biceps before reaching his shoulders.

  “I don’t understand what’s happening, but I feel as though I couldn’t walk away even if I wanted to,” Isa admitted.

  “Has no man ever held you like this? Made you aware of how badly he wants to kiss you?”

  Isa shook her head before responding.

  “No man has ever dared. My father has not always been in the king’s good graces.”

  “Knowing I am the only man who has held you in his arms brings me a happiness I know I have no right to possess.” Ric lifted her chin and looked into her eyes, his question clear. Isa gave the barest nod before mouthing the word “please.”

  Ric went slowly, as much to savor the moment he knew he could never repeat and so as not to frighten her. He brushed his lips against hers as their noses rubbed. She lifted her chin further, and their lips pressed together. Ric pulled away before diving in, over and over, until Isa’s fingers clutched the material at his shoulders. He swept his tongue over the seam of her lips, and when she gasped at the sinful feel, he slid his tongue into her mouth. Her moan began as another gasp of surprise but quickly melted into a sound of pure pleasure. She opened wider as the feel of Ric’s tongue grazing along hers lit a fire in her belly that she had never felt before.

  A restlessness settled over her, and she pressed against Ric, feeling the bulge resting at the juncture of her thighs. She understood what it was, and it only increased a need she did not know how to control. She moaned again, and Ric pressed her body more tightly against his, and her arms wrapped around his neck as the kiss deepened.

  When both of them could not last any longer without drawing air into their lungs, Ric scorched a trail of kisses along her jaw until he reached the spot behind her ear that made her shiver. She ran her fingers through his jet-black locks as the other hand clutched his shoulder. She twisted her head, bringing their lips back together. Ric’s own groan elicited a sigh from Isa as his hands cupped her backside. He backed them against the partition, pressing them into the shadows in which they both had hidden.

  “Isa, we should stop.”

  “I know.” But it was her turn to kiss along his throat as she nuzzled the stubble on his jaw.

  “Isa, my beard shall leave marks, and people will know what you have been doing.”

  This made her pull away long enough to search for something in his eyes. Whatever it was, Ric was not sure if she was relieved because she found it, or perhaps she was happy it was not there. Either way, she pulled his head back down to hers.

  “One more, please.”

  Ric groaned again as the heat burst into a roaring fire between them. He chanted to himself that she was a virgin, that she had never even been kissed before. It was the only thing that kept him from hiking her skirts up and delving his fingers into her sheath. He was sure they would be coated with her dew as she pressed her mons against his rod.

  Isa finally pulled away and pressed her fingers against her lips. She shook her head slightly before her eyes drifted closed for a long heartbeat.

  “I don’t know if thank you is the right thing to say, but I feel like I should.” She swept a lock of Ric’s hair from his forehead and tucked it back with the other ones. “I may never experience passion like that again. I’m grateful to have done so at least once before I’m married off.”

  Ric froze as his heart lurched to a stop. The idea of any man, especially a husband who had rights to Isa, touching her built a different fire in his belly. It was one of fury, jealousy, and possessiveness. While he had experienced each emotion independently, he had never experienced such a scalding mixture.

  “Are you betrothed?” he spit out.

  Isa eye’s opened so wide, Ric was sure he could see every inch of white. She shook her head furiously.

  “No. Not even remotely. I would never kiss a man if I’m promised to another. I just meant in the future. At some point. My father will have to marry me to someone. I’m not expecting it to be anyone I desire. It may not be anyone I even know. He will most likely be far older than I am and nowhere nearly as handsome as you.”

  Isa slammed her mouth shut as she rambled a confession she should have kept to herself.

  “Handsome,” Ric growled as he pulled her in for another kiss. This one was different. It was not the gentle exploration that the first kiss had begun as, or even the passionate one it turned into. This was a kiss meant to brand Isa as his, but as much as he attempted to leave his mark on her soul, she did the same to him.

  “Yes, handsome. More so than any man I have ever met,” she panted before tugging at his surcoat and pulling him back for another kiss. “What are you doing to me, Ric? I never imagined that men and women could kiss like this, and yet I cannot seem to stop.”

  “I could ask the same of you. You make me lose control, Isa.”

  “I know I shouldn’t say this, I should even think of it, but part of me wishes we could both lose control.”

  “You don’t know what you’re saying. Isa, do you know what happens between a man and a woman? How their bodies can join?”

  “Of course. I grew up in a large keep. It was impossible not to stumble upon people, and many have no discretion at court. What I haven’t seen, I have heard the older women discuss.”

  “Then perhaps you can imagine what I want to do to you, with you.”

  “I can. I’m imagining the same thing.”

  “Isa,” Ric hissed. “We must go. Now.”

  He took her hand and turned to the door, adjusting himself and relieved she could not see him. He opened the door a crack and looked both ways before sliding out and pausing. When he did not see or hear anything, he pulled Isa into the passageway.

  “Which way to the ladies’ quarters?”

  Isa pointed, and they slipped along the shadows until they reached the corner that led to where Isa’s chamber was situated amongst those of the other young women.

  Ric cupped her cheek and gave her a brief kiss on the forehead before brushing his lips against hers, much the way their initial kiss started. He spun on his heels and made his way to the stairs they had just climbed. He looked back and caught Isa doing the same as she rushed down the passageway. He waited until she reached her door before going inside.

  Chapter Six

  Isa sat among the ladies-in-waiting, but her mind felt like a hummingbird that flew from one idea to the next, never settling long enough to slow down. She thought about her encounter with Ric in the market, which made her think of the other illuminations she needed to finish, then it dashed to their tryst to what she would do if anyone, particularly her parents, discovered what they had done.

  Then it danced back to the tryst and settled there until she noticed the hum of voices grow around her, and she turned to follow the other ladies’ stares. Her stomach went concave, but she did not utter a sound. She listened to the young women around her ooh and ah over the man she had been tucked away kissing only a couple hours earlier. Isa listened as the ladies speculated who he
was and why he was suddenly at court. She kept her mouth shut and tried to make her interest match the others without giving anything away.

  After the meal, the tables were cleared away, and the musicians began to play. Isa joined the other ladies-in-waiting as they lined up for the first dance. It was one that would force her to change partners several times before finally settling with one. She knew who she wished she could partner with, but there was little chance. Instead, she would have to hear later from the other ladies who did end up dancing with Ric.

  She went through the motions but kept her eyes averted, appearing to be concentrating on the music, but really it was to keep her disappointment from showing.

  “Will you not look at me now that I’ve managed to partner with you?” Ric murmured by Isa’s ear.

  She turned her head and their mouths nearly touched.

  “How did you?” She could not offer a complete thought as her eyes glanced over the couples near them and noticed that none seemed to be paying attention to them.

  “I recognized the tune and counted the positions until I was sure I would be matched with you once the changes were done.”

  “You did?”

  “Were you hoping for someone else, Isa? Did I take you away from someone you’d rather partner with?” Ric did not want to hear the answers to those questions if they were what he feared, but her quick denial reassured him.

  “No. No. There’s no one else. I just am surprised you would put such effort into dancing with me.”

  “Isa, I don’t want to see you dancing with another man. I admit the idea of seeing another man touch you after this afternoon—” Ric shrugged. “It would be too soon.”

  “I didn’t like hearing the other ladies talk about you when you entered. I don’t want to hear any of them discussing what it feels like to be in your arms.”