A pleased kind of tenderness overtakes his features, and he steals down to kiss me. I kiss him back and close my eyes, foolishly hoping that if we get lost enough in each other, then maybe no one will find us.
I wake up to a gentle shaking feeling, and as my eyes flutter open, I find Lady Rochford standing at the foot of the bed.
“Catherine, he has to leave now. It’s almost morning.”
I turn my neck and see Simon is already awake beside me, his gaze much more serious than it was a few hours ago. We silently sit up, looking at Lady Rochford and then at each other.
“He has to leave,” she says again. “I will watch the door.” She crosses the room and exits, and Simon and I remain in painful limbo.
I swallow past the lump forming in my throat. “This is it, then.”
“No,” Simon replies determinedly, twisting to face me and taking my hand. “This isn’t it. Your plan is going to work.”
In only a minute or two, he’ll be gone, and I smile against the pain that builds deep inside chest. “You’re right,” I tell him. “Our plan is going to work.”
Except for the fact that it might not. But I’m not going to tell him that. Instead, I slip out of bed, and he does the same.
“You know things. You’ve done things differently.” He picks his clothes up from the floor and starts hastily pulling them on. “Events are not destined to end the same. What happened between us couldn’t have happened if Catherine was here. I know this wouldn’t have happened.”
“History says otherwise,” I tell him. “It wouldn’t have been you, but it would have been someone.”
“History can be wrong.” He strides around the bed until he’s standing in front of me, clasping my hips. “You’re going to prove it wrong.” I don’t answer right away, and Simon goes on. “Lily, whatever force it was that brought you here, it wouldn’t have done it without a reason.”
“I hope so,” I tell him. “But I need you to listen to me. You have to promise that if you’re questioned, you’ll swear you don’t care about me, and nothing ever happened between us. Don’t admit to anything. Do whatever you have to do to meet me on the other side of this. Promise me.”
Simon’s fingers dig into my waist, but it doesn’t hurt. I put my hands over his. He brings his face down to mine, his breath warm against my cheeks. “I promise,” he says. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
I pull his head down and kiss him. It’s tender and a little shattered, like it’s possible that it might be the last time. When I lean back, his eyes are still closed. “Go,” I whisper.
His eyes flash open, and he takes the smallest step back. “You are going to win,” he says.
I know he won’t go unless I agree. “I’m going to win,” I assure him.
He stays where he is, and I commit his image to memory before he turns and leaves. I’m left alone, blinking my eyes against the encroaching fear. Fear doesn’t control me. I control me.
I can do this. Not just for me, but for Catherine, too. Maybe no one fought for her in her time, but I’m going to do it now. I’m going to fight for her, for me, and all of us, and I am going to fight dirty.
Chapter Twenty-Three
When Lady Rochford and I return to my rooms an hour later, my ladies-in-waiting and maids of honors are noticeably absent. Time stretches, another hour passes, and they never arrive as they do every morning. When Lady Rochford eventually goes to look out in the hall, her face is serious but composed when she returns.
She sits down in the chair beside me. “There’s a wall of guards outside the doors. They said no one is permitted in, and we are not permitted to leave.”
I nod my head. I’m not entirely surprised.
“Is this what happened the last time?” I ask her. “Did he do this to your sister-in-law, Anne?”
“Yes,” Lady Rochford answers. “The king has a flair for the dramatic.”
A few moments pass in silence until I speak again. “You’d think he’d try to be original this time around.”
Lady Rochford shrugs. “You’d think so, wouldn’t you? It’s terribly dull to do the same thing every few years.” Then she adds, “Between me and you, the king was never the sharpest chisel in the carpenter’s tool chest.”
“I believe that,” I tell her. “So, what happens next?”
“Well, in a short while, one of the king’s councilors will arrive, and he’ll tell you that you are confined to your rooms. We’ll stay here for a few days or weeks as they investigate your charges or make up ones that strike their fancy.”
I make amehface as I look over at her. “That’s kind of predictable.”
