Somehow, the person in her grip twisted, hooked a leg behind hers, and then, without warning, Gwen was on the floor, back aching, lungs seizing for breath.
She was still gasping and wheezing when Isobelle flung herself down at her side and scowled up at the person responsible. ‘Olivia!’ she cried. ‘What the hell are you doing?’
Olivia, scarcely breathing hard, peered down at Gwen with a quirk of her lips, which Gwen chose to take as anapology. ‘Well, don’t jump on a girl like that if you don’t want her instincts to kick in.’
Gwen sat up, grimacing at the ache in her hip. She’d hit the edge of a sofa on her way down to the floor. ‘Don’t skulk outside like a burglar if you don’t want to get jumped on.’
Isobelle’s maid reached up and smoothed a lock of hair into place. She looked perfectly proper, except that over her dusky-blue dress she was wearing a cloak, and she had a bag slung over one arm. She readjusted the bag and leaned down to offer Gwen a hand.
Ordinarily, Gwen might have felt a certain flicker of embarrassment at having her arse handed to her so neatly. But Olivia was a law unto herself. Gwen wasfairlysure she could’ve bested Olivia at jousting, but unarmed, Olivia was quicker than anyone Gwen had ever met. And just as quick to disclaim any skill.
‘A lucky dodge,’ Olivia was saying, as she helped Gwen to her feet. ‘I’m sure if it hadn’t been dark, you’d have knocked me down quite handily.’
Isobelle was inspecting Olivia from head to toe, her brow furrowing. ‘Were you going somewhere?’ Her eyes widened. ‘Were you going to rappel down the balcony? Without telling me you were leaving?’
‘I left a note,’ Olivia muttered.
Isobelle scowled at her. ‘Well, you can just tell me what it said.’
Olivia glanced between them, sighed, and crossed the room to put the kettle on the fireplace. ‘I have some business to attend to,’ she said quietly. ‘A family matter. Aprivatefamily matter,’ she added, when Isobelle’s mouth opened.
Isobelle’s mouth closed again.
Gwen took a few steps back until she could sink down onto the edge of the sofa. ‘Do you have to go?’ she asked. ‘I don’t trust Whimsitt with Isobelle, and two guards are better than one.’
Olivia’s shuttered gaze softened a trifle, and she didn’t bother to deny that she was as effective a buffer against Whimsitt’s tyranny as Gwen. ‘I’m afraid it’s necessary, and urgent. It’ll be okay. Just keep your heads down and do as Whimsitt says until I get back, and she’ll be safe.’
‘Excuse me,’ Isobelle interjected, all amusement mingling with exasperation, ‘but I’m right here and perfectly capable of taking care of myself.’
‘Don’t I know it,’ muttered Gwen, at the exact same time Olivia snorted and said, ‘Taking yourself right into the lion’s mouth.’
Olivia crossed to Isobelle’s side and stood looking into her face, solemn now. ‘I mean it, girls. No stirring up trouble. Gwen won you a lot of leeway by defeating the dragon, but that currency isn’t going to last forever. Don’t give Whimsitt reason to find new ways to control you.’
Gwen felt Olivia’s warnings settle like boulders in herheart. Her own fears had made space for them, pacing around her thoughts and wearing down hollows shaped perfectly to hold the stony weight of Olivia’s words.
Olivia took hold of Isobelle’s hand and squeezed it. But it was at Gwen she looked as she whispered, ‘Sit tight. I’ll be back as soon as I am able.’
And with that she was gone, slipping out onto the balcony. She was nothing more than a shadow vanishing over the edge of the balustrade and into the night.
Lord Whimsitt stood in front of the hearth with his back to the door, feet apart, hands folded behind him. The guard who had been waiting outside Isobelle’s door hustled both girls inside, then shut the door with an ominous thunk, leaving them alone with Isobelle’s guardian.
Though he must have known what the sounds betokened, Whimsitt didn’t move. Gwen supposed he thought his stance imposing, but the effect was rather spoiled by the fact that the heat rising off the crackling fire was making the turquoise feather in his plum and gold embroidered hat bob up and down like the breeding plumage of a nervous quail.
For perhaps the hundredth time, Gwen’s muscles tensed with aggravation.
Thiswas the man who held their fates in his sweaty little palm – and there was nothing she could do about it.
‘You continue to defy my commands,’ he said finally, rocking up onto the balls of his feet and back down again. ‘You were to return directly to Darkhaven Castle, and yet my men informed me you were spotted taking the road to Ellsdale instead.’
‘A misunderstanding, my lord,’ Isobelle replied, her voice sickly sweet. When Gwen glanced at her, she saw her beloved’s face controlled by a stiff mask of polite deference. ‘We thought it would make no difference if we spent tonight at Ellsdale visiting Gwen’s father, since we’d be here in the morning either way. His health—’
‘Your loyalty is to me first.’ Whatever sympathetic fib Isobelle had been about to utter, Whimsitt wasn’t interested. He turned, his face red with heat and, Gwen supposed, a certain amount of ire. ‘I expect my knights to follow my orders – I expect my ward, and hercompanion, to do so as well.’
Gwen could’ve greased a rusty hinge with the oily sneer in Whimsitt’s voice as he saidcompanion. She bit her tongue.
‘Well, we’re here now. One night ought not to matter much, my lord, surely.’ Isobelle was doing her best.
‘It matters more than you think, girl.’ Whimsitt’s eyes narrowed. ‘I have a new assignment for your champion.’
