Louvaen’s mouth fell open. Unless Cinnia had gone blind all of a sudden, Gavin’s yellow gaze was hard to miss. She slammed her cup down. “Bastards! You’ve ensorcelled her.”
“Lou!”
The corner of Ambrose’s mouth turned up in a sneer. “We’ve done nothing but offer our welcome to your sister, and to you since you’re so fond of the truth.”
Cinnia hurled a piece of bread at her. “No one is enchanting anyone. What is the matter with you?”
Louvaen dodged the bread. “I’m not the one with yellow eyes!”
“You should be! You sound like a lunatic!”
She stood and grasped Cinnia’s arm. “Get up. We’re leaving.”
Cinnia jerked free. “Stop it! I’m not going anywhere!”
Louvaen’s vision hazed over red. “Yes you are, even if I have to drag you out of this gods-forsaken pit by your hair!”
The younger woman leapt to her feet and bolted for the hall. Louvaen rose to give chase.
Gavin barreled in front of her. “Let her go, mistress.”
She slammed her hands into his chest to shove him away. He was an immovable wall of solid muscle. Louvaen growled, spun back to the table for her pistol and spotted Ambrose smirking triumphantly.
The pistol dangled from his fingers. “I don’t think so, mistress.”
“Mistress Duenda!”
Louvaen turned and glared at Gavin. “What?”
He exhaled and lowered his voice. “Please give me your time. Cinnia has only fled to her room. I want to explain.”
“De Lovet, I doubt there’s anything you can say that will convince me you don’t deserve, at the very least, a sound beating.”
“Give me the chance to change your mind.”
Louvaen peered at him, seeing the earnestness in his handsome face. Even in the yellow eyes with their tinge of sorcerous blue—the tell-tale light of magic. She stared harder. “My gods,” she said. “Cinnia isn’t the one enchanted. You are.”
His shoulders slumped, relief etched in every line of his body. “Yes. I’d never allow someone to bespell her.”
While she still wanted to kill de Lovet for dragging Cinnia to the northern wilds and keeping secrets from her, the knowledge that he hadn’t ordered his magician to enchant her cooled her fury to a slow burn. She resumed her seat at the table and glared at Ambrose. “I want my pistol back when he’s done.”
He sniffed. “We’ll see.”
Gavin sat across from Louvaen. She refused his offer to refill her goblet. He refilled his before speaking. “The night we left, I’d gathered my possessions to return to Ketach Tor. The flux was growing stronger, and I couldn’t ignore its draw any longer. I’d written Cinnia a letter telling her I’d return in a few weeks. When I rode to your house to give it to her, I found her at the door. She told me she was on her way to find me.”
Louvaen growled. “Sneaking out all hours of the night. I suppose I’ll have to sleep on the threshold and nail her window shut.” She didn’t return Gavin’s faint smile. “Go on.”
“She begged me for my help. I knew Jimenin was a nuisance, a persistent suitor who wouldn’t accept her refusal of him. I didn’t realize the seriousness of your circumstances until she told me that night.”
“You had no reason to know. It was Hallis business.” She crossed her arms. “It’s still Hallis business.” Louvaen didn’t know who she wanted to cuff more now—Gavin or Cinnia. Her sister had made a right mess of things by involving de Lovet.
He sighed. “Mistress Duenda, if this is a matter of pride, it’s misplaced. Your family needs our help. We have the means to pay your father’s debt. You won’t have to sell your house or possessions; your father won’t sit in the debtor’s tower. The solution is simple and readily available.”
Louvaen stared at him until the color ran high in his cheeks. Simple had no place in any of this. “Do you understand what you’ve done by acting as Cinnia’s rescuing knight? You’ve compromised her, threatened her reputation. For all that I prefer the truth, I’ve lied myself blue trying to convince the townsfolk of Monteblanco that my sister isn’t a light skirt who ran off with the lad possessing a false nobility. Once we return home it will take all her charm and my good standing to convince our friends and neighbors her visit to a relative was simply an unfortunate coincidence with the disappearance of Gavin de Lovet.”
Gavin traced the rim of his cup with a finger, his eyes gleaming almost amber in the light cast by the morning sun through the windows. “She doesn’t need to return. She’s welcomed here.” His hand slid down to grip the tankard’s handle, and his expression pleaded for understanding. “I love your sister, Mistress Duenda. I wish to protect her, court her, and ultimately wed her. Despite appearances, we are a wealthy household. We could satisfy your father’s debt ten times over and do so happily. Jimenin will be no threat to her or your family.”
Louvaen pressed the heel of her palm to her forehead. “For all your protestations of love, you’re lying to her this moment with your magician’s sorcery.”
