courtiers and commoners there to watch young lovers as much as pay attendance to the queen.
Of the two, Belinda is the more reserved: her gaze is cast downward, a picture of modesty in one of the new-fashioned gowns. It makes her look sweet and delectable, like a creature who should be thrown on the floor and tasted of, taking her innocence with tongue and fingers and shaming her modesty when gasps of unlooked-for delight come to her lips. And yet an undercurrent of strain seems to vibrate through her, telling Ana that despite her outward demeanor, Belinda listens, judges, plans. That’s good; that’s what Robert will want to hear.
But the other, the prince: he watches Belinda more often than he watches the queen or the people who will someday be his. It’s his place, Ana supposes, to be the one who looks on her, being a man with no need for decorum. He looks like the one who would take Belinda on the floor, so much need burning in him that he would hardly bother sending courtiers away first. It’s glorious to see, how passion warms his pale skin and how people glance toward Belinda with admiration, as though Javier’s lust for her influences their own opinions. Javier is a natural leader, if he can pursuade men so easily that his passions are the ones they should follow.
Robert, Lord Drake, will be very pleased indeed if the prince of Gallin will follow Belinda Primrose to the ends of the earth and beyond.
Satisfied, Ana gathers her skirts and slips out of the palace hall to write a letter of reassurance. Oh, yes, she will write, there is love and lust and loyalty between them, but it runs deeper on Gallin’s part than Aulun’s, an opinion Robert ought to trust, for there’s not a much better judge of character than a whore. And then she’ll seal the letter and let a rider take it to a ship and the sea, for Aulun is such a little distance away, and Robert so very close.
* * * *
BELINDA PRIMROSE / BEATRICE IRVINE
24 November 1587
Lutetia
“Viktor.” It had become too easy to use names in the weeks—months, now—that she’d been Beatrice Irvine. It would take retraining to fall out of the habit again, though at least a servant wasn’t expected to be on personal terms with her mistress and master. Belinda whispered the guard’s name again, almost singing it, and extended witchpower through the word, drifting magic through Sandalia’s palace.
She felt him stiffen in more ways than one when her will touched his. Even from the distance his emotions surged, desire mixing with fear to make a potent cocktail. He stepped away from his posting, gaze lingering on Akilina for an instant, a moment in which Belinda thought she could see the raven-haired woman through his eyes. She was barely dressed for breakfast, wearing a shift of linen and an open robe thrown over it, and her gaze went briefly to her guard, then away again, dismissive as she turned her attention back to her meal. A thrill danced through Belinda at the possibility that another’s eyes might be used to spy in such a way, but the images faded so quickly as to have been imagination, as Viktor walked blindly through the halls, drawing closer without seeming to know where his feet took him. Lust all but rolled ahead of him, strong enough that Belinda thought she could smell it, musky and warm in the cool stone hallways. It pricked her own interest, and for a fleeting instant the idea of risking taking her onetime lover anew appealed to her.
She cut off a sharp laugh at the back of her throat, making a fist at her side. That impulse was the witchpower, not her own intellect; she’d come to recognize its base desires quickly enough to route them. Anything else would be tantamount to suicide: the prince’s soon-to-be wife could not, under any circumstances, be thought unfaithful. Even Sacha had ceased playing at that game, his obsession turned to searching for Eliza, though Belinda still waited for him to betray her to Javier. That she’d set up a defusal for his accusations was a start, but perhaps not enough, and the uncertainty rankled.
Witchpower whispered around the edges of her mind, golden and sultry, offering itself as a method of dealing with the stocky lord. Belinda set her jaw and put the temptation away: power was best used discreetly, and Asselin could be controlled through other