When she had swallowed it, the others looked even moreenticing.
There was a single spoon for the stew on the table, Annelise noticed. There was also fruit, a chalice, and a decanter that proved to contain redwine.
A meal laid forone.
As a lord might eat insolitude?
Or as one might offer aguest?
Annelise surveyed the room again and noticed the large tub steaming in the comer. Her skin itched at the very idea of a bath and she immediately investigated. The water was hot and the tub was full enough that the bath would be deep but not overflow the tub. Rounded flower petals the size of her thumb floated across the surface of the water and their unfamiliar scent washeavenly.
Feminine.
This was no lord’s bath but one prepared for alady.
A guest who was alady.
Annelise knew she was the only woman in this palace on this evening. She smiled at her host’s generous hospitality and decided she would not insult him by letting it go towaste.
She dipped a finger into the scented water and decided it was too hot asyet.
But if she ate first, it would be near perfect. Annelise considered the chamber even as her heart told her to believe hersuspicions.
If this enigmatic lord meant to court her favor, she would notdecline.
Indeed, if she was going to argue with him over his odd stipulation of marriage, she would do well to be at herbest.
* * *
Rolfe’s senseof purpose deserted him when he rounded a corner in the palace and saw the candlelight pooling on the stone floorahead.
The noblewoman who held his fate in her hands was only a dozen pacesaway.
If she had any sense at all, she would have one question—if not a hundred—and he had no explanation for any ofit.
At least not one that any sensible person mightbelieve.
Perhaps she was a fool, but that would be a cruel fateindeed.
And not his dream cometrue.
There was no point in delay, though. The noblewoman had given her agreement, and Rolfe was anxious to break the curse. One night of loving might well solve his dilemma, if the second djinn had beenright.
Perhaps some wondrous explanation of their entwined fates would pop into Rolfe’s mind before he confrontedher.
Perhapsnot.
Perhaps matters would be simpler once the curse wasbroken.
There was a thought! He strode onward withpurpose.
Then he halted on the threshold of the chamber he favored. For the second time in rapid succession, the palace had taken him by surprise. Rolfe had hoped that the lady’s desires would be met, but he had never imagined his will had this kind ofpower.
The room he preferred had been transformed. It was filled with a glow that exceeded every other chamber, as if it had been summoning the lady. Rolfe could smell food and the warm sweet scent of a lady risen from her bath. He took an appreciative breath and caught the tang of a robustcheese.
The lady, though, was nowhere insight.
Feeling like an intruder in his own palace, Rolfe stepped into the room. Emboldened by the silence, he continued until he was staring down at the remains of hermeal.
