Rosalinde pursed her lips. She wasn’t so certain of that fact. Celia was the most disinterested bride she had ever known. Neither she nor Stenfax seemed to have allowed emotion to come into the equation of their nuptials at all. After her own bitter experience with marriage, Rosalinde supposed she should be relieved that Celia wasn’t letting her heart lead.
And yet she was uncomfortable with the fact that her younger sister was only being practical. Would she be unhappy with that decision in the future? Would she regret being forced to make the choice Rosalinde had not?
Rosalinde glanced over to find Gertrude watching her closely. Apparently she was awaiting some kind of answer to her earlier statement about Celia’s impending wedding.
Rosalinde shrugged. “Well, worried or no, we’ll get there tomorrow and it will have to be enough. All we can hope now is that we arrive safely at this inn of Lincoln’s and that tonight is more uneventful than today has been.”
“How couldanythingbe as eventful as today?” Gertrude asked with a laugh.
Rosalinde joined her in the laugh, for she knew in her heart that her maid was right. The inn couldn’t be anywhere as shocking as the road had been. Not at all.
Gray sat in the corner table at the Raven’s Wing Tavern, nursing his ale and watching the crowd fall in from the storm that raged outside. Normally he would curse the weather, which currently kept him from his business, but since he wasn’t actually looking forward to the duty before him, he toasted it instead.
“One more night won’t change a thing,” he muttered to himself.
He sipped the ale and grimaced. If the snow hadn’t forced him off the road an hour before, this was not the kind of establishment he would normally patronize. It was worn out, ill kept, and the ale was terrible. But beggars, it seemed, could not be choosers. A proverb that had always chafed Gray, as he was not accustomed tobegginganyone for anything.
Even a drink. And it didn’t seem he had to, for the round innkeeper’s wife who had greeted him and shown him to his small but serviceable room when he arrived now stepped up beside him with another tankard in her hand.
He smiled his thanks. “You are getting busy,” he said, nodding toward the door where another group of travelers had just staggered in, brushing snow from their clothing as they were welcomed by the portly innkeeper.
The woman’s eyes gleamed with greedy pleasure. “Aye. When you travelers lose, it seems we win. We have only a room or two left for the night.”
Gray tilted his head. “And what happens when they are full? Being stuck in this storm could be deadly.”
“My husband says we’ll stack them out in the great hall here like firewood,” she said, rubbing her hands together with glee, “and charge them half of what we’d have them pay for a bed and a fire of their own. We’re already doubling up the servants in the back.”
Gray pursed his lips. He was glad he’d gotten his room when he had, for the idea of sleeping out here in this sea of wet and sniffling humanity was unpleasant, indeed.
The door opened yet again and a swirl of snow entered before the new arrival. As the door was shut and the flakes fell away, Gray straightened. It was two women who had entered this time. They were obviously lady and servant by their posture. The lady wore a red coat, its hood up around her face. When she pushed it back, Gray caught his breath.
She was stunningly beautiful. Her dark hair was almost jet black, but her eyes were icy blue, piercing the room even from the distance between them. She was the kind of woman who men turned to stare at if she passed them on the street. Now the main hall of the inn grew silent as those within did just that. The lady shifted as a grumble rustled through the crowd of mostly men.
“Ah, here’s another!” the innkeeper’s wife cackled. “And I bet she’ll pay a pretty penny not to have to sleep out in the main room with the riffraff.”
She hustled off toward the lady without another word for Gray. He was just as glad for it. Right now his body was doing things he had not allowed it to do for months, hell, years. He’d been a veritable monk during that time, focusing on his investments, his fortune, his family.
Now he wasn’t feeling particularly monk-like as the lady newcomer smiled at the innkeeper’s wife and began to speak to her softly.
She looked nervous, though Gray could hardly blame her for that after her entrance. Every man in the room was still casting side glances at her like she was a sweet and all of them were starving. Gray included, it seemed.
She looked sophisticated, as well. Every movement of her body spoke of quiet elegance. She must have had money, for the innkeeper had now joined his wife in their discussions and both of them were practically drooling all over the newcomer.
The newcomer who was still unaccompanied except by her maid. There was no man who had yet marched through that door to wrap his arm around her and stake his claim before the masses.
The innkeeper’s wife smiled and motioned for the lady and her maid to follow her, guiding them through the crowded hall and up the stairs where the bedrooms awaited.
Once the mysterious lady had gone, the room drew breath again and the men around him began to make various lewd conversation about the beauty who had just been in their midst. Gray gripped his tankard a bit harder as he heard just snippets of the conversation of those close to him.
“Beautiful eyes—”
“…those breasts…”
“I’d like to—”
It seemed everyone in the room had the same lascivious thoughts about the lady. Gray certainly hoped she would be wary when it came to the men in the hall. Most would likely do no more than talk about her behind her back. But a few…Gray looked around. A few did not look savory.
The innkeeper now circulated into the crowd, taking over his wife’s job of pouring fresh whiskey and checking on the men in his company. As he passed by Gray’s table, he paused.
