The Most Powerful Of Kings - Jackie Ashenden Page 0,6

pointlessly around inside it.

No, she hadn’t thought about seducing him. She was a novice wanting to take her vows and she’d eschewed earthly pleasures. Not that she had any experience with said earthly pleasures, and not that she’d ever wanted to.

She knew about sex from a biological point of view and had sneaked a few romances from some of the other novices, so she’d learned about passion too. But that hadn’t been enough to make her think she wanted a man in her life.

The Reverend Mother had mentioned following a vocation and Anna had decided that her vocation lay in the convent.

She’d grown up with the sisters, having been taken in as a baby after her mother had given birth to her before promptly disappearing. A year earlier Anna had tracked her down, wanting to find out her own history, and initially her mother had been receptive to the emails Anna had sent. Then, inexplicably, had cut off all contact, mentioning another family and a life she didn’t want disrupted.

Not so inexplicably.

Perhaps if Anna hadn’t indulged her temper and been impatient when her mother had mentioned old memories being stirred up, that contact wouldn’t have been cut off.

But it was too late now. She’d got angry and her mother hadn’t contacted her again, and now Anna had added forgiveness to the list of virtues she needed to practise.

It was fine. Her mother had found the contact too difficult, and she was totally within her rights not to want to continue it. Anna didn’t need her acceptance to find a home, anyway. She’d found her place with the sisters and that was where she was going to stay.

And she definitely wasn’t going to be leaving that for a mere man.

No matter how interesting the man?

Anna shut her case firmly. There were no interesting men. And that included the arrogant, rude king with the ridiculous Christian name.

It felt grossly unfair that he was going to send her away without a reason. What would she tell the Reverend Mother? It had been her rudeness that had caused her dismissal in all likelihood, which wouldn’t go down at all well. Especially when everyone knew what a temper she had.

Perhaps the Reverend Mother would even decide not to approve Anna taking her vows, which would be...

A cold feeling twisted in her gut. She would be cast out into the world to find her own way, with no friends and no family. Locked out of the only home she’d ever known.

She couldn’t let that happen, she just couldn’t. Which meant she’d have to go to this king and ask him for a reason for her dismissal. She deserved that much, didn’t she? After coming all the way here? And if she knew the reason, then perhaps she could convince him to let her stay.

Anna stalked over to the door and pulled it open, glancing down the stone corridor. The palace was medieval, with high, vaulted ceilings and narrow stone hallways. There were lights, but it was a place that brought to mind flickering sconces and rushes on the floor, with lots of hounds and burly men in armour milling around.

She walked quickly, confident she’d find someone who’d point her in the right direction. Palaces were generally full of people, after all. They’d no doubt forbid her to see the king, since she supposed a nobody like her wouldn’t be granted a second audience. Nevertheless, she was prepared to stand her ground. Even five minutes of his time for an explanation would be enough.

A few palace staff were around, but none of them were forthcoming about where the king was—understandably—but after she’d smiled winningly at one stern-faced guard he mentioned that the king was having some ‘sparring’ time in the gym.

Anna thanked him and went off down another corridor, pausing to ask another guard where the gym was. It was in a different wing of the palace, involving more corridors and a lot of stairs, and when she got to the doors she was stymied by a couple of guards who scanned her suspiciously.

However, she must have looked unthreatening, because after she gave them both another of those winning smiles and played the nun card one of them agreed to take her into the gym to request a personal audience.

The gym turned out to be a huge stone hall, with state-of-the-art exercise machines and weight benches down one end and a big open space covered by a mat near by. Right in front of her, though, was