high cheekbones and dark, delicate lashes. Her smooth, pink lips that he ached to feel beneath his own.
Aye, she was a woman in every way but her dress.
“Nay, you are not.”
“I am much more comfortable on the move. I—”
“Nay,” he said firmly. “I travel alone.”
His brothers would not like it, but Alex wanted no witnesses to his folly. “It’s much too dangerous for you to—”
“I’ve been travelling without an escort for some time now. At least you will be there. Please let me come.”
It was a terrible idea.
Not only was it dangerous, but he desired her. Others may think her a lad, a squire, but he knew otherwise. He could not find himself alone with her—
“I watched my father be murdered.”
She’d said it so quietly, Alex had to ask her to repeat herself. When she did, he was only left with more questions. But to voice them would silence her, and so he simply nodded for her to go on.
“I cannot close my eyes even now, years later, without seeing the dagger slice through his neck. Since then, I’ve moved from place to place. Usually following the tourney. Even still, movement makes me feel safe. As grateful as I am for your brother’s offer to stay here, I feel. . .”
He waited, but she said no more. No mention of why her father had been murdered or who he had been in life. Alex could guess at some of it. A lord, no doubt. Judging from her accent, though, not a border lord, and she was clearly not from the south.
She’d made no mention of her mother. Or siblings. Alex tried to imagine living through his father’s death and mother’s abandonment without the support of Toren and Reid and Catrina.
He’d not have managed well.
“Please,” she added, her voice soft but urgent.
Why she wanted to come so badly, he could not understand. But neither could he deny her, especially not out of an inability to control his own desire.
He was stronger than that.
They halted just as Brockburg came into view. Alex turned, her grip on his waist loosening.
“You may come,” he said, knowing it was a bad idea.
For his efforts, he was granted a brilliant smile. It was the first one she’d given him since he had discovered her secret. Her straight white teeth peeked out from her parted lips. . .
He had made a dangerous mistake.
When they began the incline to the castle, Clara tightened her arms around Alex. She felt as if they would topple backward. It reminded her of when she’d once ridden what she had thought to be the highest mountain in all of England. Gilbert had laughed, telling her it was nothing more than a small hill, but she’d been afraid enough to get off her horse and refuse to ride, preferring to walk alongside the beast instead.
“If you keep that up, it will be a long journey indeed.”
“Oh! Did I hurt you?” She hadn’t realized how hard she was squeezing him.
“That depends, lass, on the kind of hurt you refer to.”
Now what in the devil was that supposed to mean?
She loosened her grip slightly as his meaning finally registered. Clara smiled against his back. At least she was not the only one affected. When he had turned to look at her earlier, she’d thought for a moment he was going to kiss her.
“You’re a churl to say such things to a lady,” she teased.
“A woman or a lady?” They were admitted entry through the gatehouse.
“Does it matter, sir?” He already knew too much. She didn’t want to give anything else away.
“While it should not, I confess it does. But as you say, such topics are much too delicate for your innocent English ears.” He wasn’t able to hide the laughter in his voice.
“I doubt that very much. You forget, I’ve lived as a boy.”
Posing as a boy had indeed given her a unique perspective. Men spoke more openly around small, insignificant Alfred than they would around Lady Clara. As such, she’d learned one thing about men over the past few years. Their desire for the fairer sex was insatiable. Married men and the newly betrothed often spoke of liaisons that, by rights, should not have been possible. Their crude talk had given Clara an education Gilbert had never intended her to have. In turn, she’d also learned to speak more openly than she ever would have as a noblewoman.
“Neither does the fact that I am English seem of consequence,” she added as an afterthought.
When they