Annavieve grew serious. “You did not tell them?”
He shook his head. “Nay.”
“Why not?”
He lifted his eyebrows to emphasize his point. “Because they would try to talk me out of it,” he said. “This way, they can plead total ignorance and it will be true. Besides… I cannot have them following. It would make them just as guilty as I am.”
Annavieve was concerned. “Mayhap you should tell them simply so they can be prepared,” she suggested. “Victor will more than likely not discover we are missing until tomorrow. Mayhap you should tell your friends so they know what is coming.”
Kevin pondered that a moment but ultimately shook his head. “I cannot burden them with such knowledge,” he said. “They are my best friends. They followed me to the Levant and they will follow me anywhere. I cannot burden them with mychoice on the direction my life will now take. Accompanying me to the Levant is one thing, but this is quite another.”
Annavieve gazed up at him, seeing some sorrow in his expression. “You have known them a long time?”
He nodded, thinking of Thomas and Adonis. He would miss them. “All of my life.”
Annavieve felt a good deal of pity for the man. She snuggled against him, feeling his arm around her tighten.
“Where will we go from here?” she asked.
His thoughts of Thomas and Adonis turned to thoughts of the immediate future. “North,” he said. “We will go to my mother. I have not seen her in six years and if I am to flee the king and the Duke of Dorset, then I want to see her one more time before I go. It will probably be the last time. And I want her to meet you, of course. You will like my mother; she is wild and loud, but she has a heart of gold.”
Annavieve grinned at the description of his mother. “How on earth did such a woman have a son such as you?” she asked. “You are very quiet and calm.”
He gave her a half-grin. “My father was so calm that he was nearly dead,” he said, watching her laugh. “At least, that is what my mother said. You would have liked my father; he was a wise and wonderful man.”
Annavieve could see both sorrow and joy in his expression as he reflected upon his father. “I wonder what he would have said to all of this?” she asked.
He sighed, a flicker of a grin crossing his lips. “He told me something once,” he said. “I am not sure if many people know this, but the legendary William de Wolfe fell in love with his liege’s wife long ago. They carried on an affair in secret with his liege’s blessing and when the man died, he married the widow. He is still married to my Aunt Jordan. My father always said thatin matters of the heart, men have no control. I suppose that is what he would say now.”
“But he would not approve.”
Kevin looked at her. “If our son was doing what we are about to do, wouldyouapprove?”
She pursed her lips wryly. “Of course I would not,” she said. “But I would understand.”
“Then I suppose that is how my father would react.”
For the first time, Annavieve could feel apprehension from him at what they were about to face. He had been so calm and decisive about it that she had come to wonder if he really understood the seriousness of it, but now she realized that he did. It was serious, indeed. Rather than let his anxiety frighten her, she sought to comfort him instead. It was his life he was upending, after all.
Wrapping her arms around his waist, she hugged him tightly and Kevin shifted so that he could get both arms around her. He held her close, kissing her forehead and her cheek before seeking her lips. She was sweet and warm and delicious and already Kevin’s loins were growing hard. He was sure that Annavieve could feel him through her dress.
The kiss grew more heated and, in the darkness, he caressed her left breast, gently, fondling her through the fabric. Annavieve lifted her arms so they were around his neck, giving him access to her breasts as he kneaded and caressed. His mouth moved to her beautiful shoulders and neck, suckling the top of her breasts and trying not to leave any marks. He ended up licking them because he wanted to taste her so badly.
Backing her up against a fencepost, he snaked a hand underneath her dress, seeking her tender sex. Annavieve lifted a leg, giving him greater access, and his fingers probed her as she groaned softly. He wanted very badly to take her at that momentand was giving serious consideration to finding a warm, dark corner of the livery when he heard a voice behind him.
“Hage, move away from the duchess. Do it now.”
Kevin’s head came up and he swung around to see Salisbury and Victor standing there along with a host of Salisbury soldiers. Puzzled, he discreetly pushed Annavieve’s skirts down and faced the collection of men standing in the darkness, but he was particularly focused on Victor.
For once, the man was giving him the same cold expression he usually gave Annavieve.
It was then that Kevin suspected whatever this was, or whatever reason they were congregating, could not be good.
He braced himself.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“God’s Bones,” Williambreathed with sorrow. “Have we truly been harboring a scorpion in our bosom? Has he now stung us without us realizing what he has done?”
