gain access to his primary objective.
As he did, her body heaved under him, a gasping cry sounded near his right ear, and in a flurry of movement, she slid from his grasp. Flying out of the bed, she managed on her way to deal him a stunning blow across his face. Then he saw only flashes of movement and light, and before he could collect wit enough to know that he was awake and had been toying with an unknown but very enticing female in his bed, a sound near the door told him that she was rummaging through the kist there.
Leaping from the bed, he shot toward her, but the door crashed back just as he reached for her, clouting his outstretched fingers and hand hard as it did.
The glow of torchlight in the corridor revealed long, lush, dark-red hair; a drab robe hastily flung over a pink shift that barely concealed long, lovely legs; curving hips, and a tantalizingly small waist as she ran. His aching hand and stinging cheek provided excellent cause for retaliation, but he no sooner started to give chase than he recalled his own state of naked readiness and swiftly collected his wits.
Chasing a nubile beauty by dead of night in a state such as his own just then might find favor in some masculine establishments that he had visited. But his grace the King’s royal castle of Turnberry was definitely not one of them.
The young woman dashing up the corridor did not dare to look behind her, lest her pursuer know and recognize her. But as she gripped the handle of the nursery door, she could not resist glancing back and felt a surge of relief to see that the dimly lit corridor behind her was empty.
She had been sure that he would pursue her. But what a coil if he had and worse had he chanced to recognize her or seen her clearly enough to know her later.
Shoving the nursery door open, she whisked herself inside. Then, relieved, she quietly shut the door, eased the latch hook into place, and bolted the door, giving thanks to God as she did that Hetty had not already done so.
Glancing over her shoulder, she noted in the light of the single cresset still burning in the chamber, and the dimmer glow of embers from the well-banked fire, that Hetty was fast asleep on a pallet near the hearth. In the far corner of the room, the drawn curtains of a cupboard bed warned her to wake Hetty quietly.
Moving swiftly to the pallet, listening all the while for sounds from the corridor that might herald a search by the man who had been sleeping in Hetty’s bed, she gently shook the plump, middle-aged mistress of the royal nursery.
“Hetty, wake up,” she murmured. “Oh, don’t screech, but do wake up!”
The woman’s eyes flew open, and she sat bolt upright. “My lady!” she exclaimed. Softening her voice, she added, “What are ye doing in here?”
Seventeen-year-old Lady Marsaili Drummond Cargill grimaced. “I could not sleep, Hetty. I went to your room and climbed into your bed as I have bef—”
“Och! Ye did nae such thing! Not tonight of all—! What time is it then?”
“I don’t know, after midnight I think. Oh, Hetty—”
“Good sakes, but his grace’s man did say—”
“Someone was in your bed, Hetty. A man!”
“Is that no what I was just trying to tell ye? His grace’s gentleman—”
“It cannot have been his grace’s man,” Marsaili said. “His grace’s man—”
“Whisst now, will ye whisst? I’m trying to tell ye, if ye’ll just listen to me. Sakes, but I thought ye’d learned to curb such foolish, impulsive—”
“Hetty, he was naked!”
Henrietta Childs, Mistress of the Royal Nursery, grabbed Marsaili firmly by the shoulders, gave her a shake, and looked into her eyes. “Now, Lady Marsi, have done! Ye’ll tell me right now, was the man awake?”
“Not at first.”
“At first!” Hetty’s voice went up on the words, and with a swift look at the curtained bed in the corner, she lowered it to a whisper to add, “What did he do?”
“He rolled over and… and, before I realized that it wasn’t you—”
“Ay-de-mi, did he touch ye?”
Remembering, and instantly feeling the strong, hitherto unfamiliar but most pleasurable sensations that his touch had first stirred in her, Marsi swallowed. But Hetty looked fierce, and Hetty had known her from her cradle and was reminding her of that with every word and look, so Marsi said, “He did, aye. But he did not see me,