His smile faded as he stared at her. So beautiful and innocent. “I wish I had visited,” he said sincerely.
She turned to him, startled.
“You would have been riding much sooner.”
Eve nodded. She placed a hand on his arm. “Please don’t tell Michael. He would never understand how much this means to me. He might even try to stop us.”
Gabriel nodded in agreement. “What do you suggest we tell him we were doing?”
She smiled slyly at him and Gabriel’s heart beat faster.
“We could tell him we were searching for angels.”
There was only one angel here he could see, and he was looking at her. “Aye,” he agreed, unable to take his gaze from her. “That we could.”
Michael paced the hallway, clenching and unclenching his fists. He looked out the large open window into the courtyard below, but there was no sign of Gabe and Eve’s return. He should have gone after them. What was Gabriel telling her? He didn’t trust him.
“Michael!”
He turned to see Henry lumbering toward him. For such a big man, Henry was spry on his feet and quick. However, now was not the time to be catching up with his old friend. “Where did he go?” he snapped.
Henry pulled back, startled and confused. He looked at the window and then back to Michael. “Gabe?” Henry shrugged. “You know Gabe. He tells me nothing. He’s probably with a lovely lady.”
Michael ground his teeth. “He left with my future wife.”
“Oh.” Henry’s congenial demeanor vanished in guilt and he looked at the window. “You have nothing to worry about. Gabe is honorable. He is probably…” But he couldn’t come up with an answer. “He’s as honorable as you. You have nothing to worry about!” Henry slapped him on the back.
Michael had never considered Gabe honorable. He considered him disloyal and untrustworthy. And now, now, he was out in the country with his future wife. This could only end badly. “We have to find them.”
Henry scratched his neck, confused.
“She could be hurt.”
Henry began to shake his head, then stopped and looked at the courtyard below. “She looks fine to me.”
Michael slapped the edge of the window in his hurry to see them. They walked through the courtyard, leading the brown palfrey, talking. A radiant smile the likes of which Michael had never seen spread across Eve’s face. Rage and jealousy burned within him and he hurried from the window toward the courtyard.
Chapter Four
Gabriel listened to Eve’s descriptionof the tapestry her aunt had sent her and nodded. “I would like to see it.”
“I would love to show it to you,” Eve said as they walked through the courtyard. The sun was beginning to set and many of the merchants were leaving the castle, carrying empty baskets and steering wagons toward the gatehouse. “It’s just so lovely with the image of a jousting scene and –”
“Jousting isn’t lovely.”
They looked up to see Michael coming toward them like a storm cloud. His dark gaze swung from Eve to Gabriel and then back to Eve.
Gabriel had never seen this furious look on Michael’s face, but his guard rose immediately in preparation for a battle.
“Where have you been?” Michael demanded.
Eve cast Gabriel a sideways conspiratorial glance. “We were searching for angels.”
Gabriel grinned at her lightheartedness, of the plan they had hatched to keep the horseback riding lessons a secret.
“Isn’t that the way your sister died?”
Eve’s smile vanished.
