“She is a pretty girl, well-educated. Why?”
“Do you like her?”
“I’ve not had a great chance to know her, but what I have seen, I like.”
“You know that our families are expecting me to marry her.”
“I know.”
“Let me ask you another question.”
“Go ahead.”
“What do you think of Lady Corisande?”
Addax’s head came up, the dark eyes glittering. “Ah,” he said after a moment. “I understand now.”
Cole looked at him. “You do? Then explain it to me.”
Addax pushed himself up, swinging his legs over the side of the mattress. “What do you want me to explain?” he said. “Lady Corisande is beautiful and she is a fresh face. She is simply new and interesting. You’ve found a pretty new girl to look at.”
Cole rolled onto his side to look at him. “I have seen plenty of beautiful, fresh faces in my life, but not one of them has made me feel like I’ve been struck by lightning when I look at her.”
“Not even Mary?”
Cole shrugged, reflecting on the wife he’d lost. “I do not know,” he admitted. “With Mary, my feelings for her were a calm and comfortable thing. But with Corisande… all I know is that I feel bolts of lightning rush through my veins when she looks at me and we had a nice conversation earlier this evening when I left the hall. It is difficult to describe, but talking to her… it is so easy. The words simply flowed and I do not converse easily, Ad. You know this.”
“She makes you feel comfortable.”
Cole nodded. “I look at her and all I want to do is smile,” he said. “Christ, that sounds like madness even as I say it. But the way she handled herself when Canmore took her prisoner speaks of her inner strength. I have never seen a woman handle herself so well in the face of danger.”
“And that impresses you?”
“It does.”
Addax scratched his head. “Then mayhap you should keep away from Audrie de Longley until you can figure out if the attraction to Corisande de Bourne is something more thansimple infatuation. But you do have a commitment of sorts with Audrie, Cole. This could get… tricky.”
Cole sat up. “Thereisno commitment,” he said. “Simply an expectation that has never been spoken aloud. I have never asked to formally court her. Audie is charming and witty, but there is also a superficialness to her. When I speak to her about my life, about my interests, she listens politely and immediately starts talking about herself again. It would be nice to have a wife who was interested in my likes and wants again. Mary was.”
“And you think that Lady Corisande can replace Mary?”
Cole shrugged. “Not replace her,” he said. “It is not my intention to replace her at all. But if I could find an intelligent woman who showed interest in me, that would mean something. With Audie, everything you need to know about her is right there in front of you. There’s nothing deeper with her. No wants, no dreams, no desires.”
Addax regarded him in the dim light. “And you sense something deeper in Lady Corisande?”
Cole half-nodded, half-shrugged. “I don’t know what I sense,” he said. “All I know is that she makes me sit up and take notice in a way Audie never has. She’s like a goddess on the mountaintop and I am but a lowly servant at her feet. The woman is far too good for me and I know it, but that does not stop my interest in her.”
Addax was grinning at him. “Then mayhap you should explore that,” he said. “Es and I can return to Pelinom and tell your father what has occurred here with Canmore. Why not remain here under some pretext? Get to know Lady Corisande and see if she’s really the goddess on the mountaintop that you think she is.”
Cole shook his head. “I would like to, but I cannot,” he said. “I must tell my father personally what we have discovered, butwhen that is finished, I will return here if I can. I have promised myself that. And I have promised Corisande, too.”
“She knows of your interest?”
“Nay,” Cole said. “But it is quite possible that she will at some point soon.”
Addax grinned, his white teeth flashing in the dim light, as Essien suddenly rolled onto his back.
“By all that is holy,” he muttered, putting his hands over his face. “Will you two shut your bloody mouths? How is a man supposed to sleep?”
