“Well, then, let’s use them,” Kendra snapped, snatching one of them from the girl’s hands.
Trick grabbed another, and the three of them laid all the old towels end to end—covering perhaps one-third of the big featherbed.
“This is it?”Kendra asked bleakly, suddenly feeling all worn out.“There’s no more clean linen anywhere?”
A single tear made its way down Margaret’s cheek as she shook her head sorrowfully.“I’m so sorry, your grace.So, so sorry I spilled—”
“Everyone makes mistakes,” Trick broke in.“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” he added soothingly.
Kendra felt far from soothed.Frustration and fatigue were battling inside her.“Apparentlyourmistake was expecting even a moment of peace at Christmas,” she grumbled with an elaborate sigh.
She considered sleeping on the bare tick, but rejected that thought immediately.It was stuffed with down and feathers that would poke her all night without linens to cover it.
“We’ll sleep in the room Cas and Pol are sharing, since it has two beds,” she decided dejectedly.“That will be all, Margaret.Happy Christmas.”
“H-happy Christmas to you, your grace,” Margaret said through a sniffle as she left the room.
Kendra just stood there barefoot for a moment, listening to the maid blow her nose in the corridor before making her way up the stairs to the attic.
Thirty-Three
Jewel
FROM THE FARend of the corridor, Jewel watched Margaret blow her nose and tuck the handkerchief back into her sleeve.Then the maid squared her shoulders and came running (or was that skipping?), softly giggling all the way.
“It went all right, then?”Jewel asked when Margaret reached her.
“It went splendidly, my lady.”A wide smile spread on the girl’s face.“Is it terrible of me to think this has been fun?”
“I certainly hope not.”Jewel smiled in return.“Because if you’re terrible, I’m worse.”
Thirty-Four
Kendra
ONCE THE MAID’Sfootsteps had faded, Kendra turned to Trick.“Ishould be the one crying, not Margaret.”
“Ah, lassie, it’s not bad enough to warrant tears from either of you,” he replied and wrapped her in a hug that was clearly meant to be consoling.
But she couldn’t help turning her face up for a kiss.
She wanted him so badly.
Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t long before the kisses turned into more.Kendra inhaled Trick’s oh-so-familiar sandalwood scent and fairly melted into his arms.When his hands went to detach her stomacher again, she didn’t stop him.As he unlaced her bodice beneath it, a ripple of excitement shot through her.
“Maybe we should try the bed without linens,” she murmured.“We can cover it with blankets.There were extras in the chest in the other chamber.”
Leaving her dress gaping open, she went back to the chest at the foot of the bed.And lifted the heavy lid.And found…
Nothing.
The chest was empty.
She dropped the lid with abang.“I was sure there would be blankets in here.”The ones she’d seen in the other room had been wool and would have been itchy, but that was better than being poked.
He came closer and drew her bodice off her shoulder, kissing the skin he’d bared.“Maybe we can get them from our old chamber.”
Another faint moan sounded from next door.“I’m not interruptingthat.Where is the counterpane, anyway?”She glanced at the soggy pile in the corner.“It’s not there.”
