Ashblane's Lady by Sophia James

Author:Sophia James
Language: ron
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Alexander stood at the window overlooking the bailey and watched Madeleine with her page in

the kitchen gardens. Gillion kneeled beside them, laughing when her arm came around his

shoulders as he handed her some leaves. Leaning in.

He remembered the feel of her in his own arms last night, easy and loving, her more prickly

carefulness lessened under the onslaught of.. .what? Lust? Desire? Frowning at his musings,

he leaned against the wall, a small and slow movement lest she see him.

She was changing him just as she was changing his son! Even from this distance he could see

Gillion’s furtive fear had been replaced by something akin to the joy Jemmie bubbled over with

and often now he caught the two children with their heads together, hatching up another

scheme, dark amber against blond.

His eyes flickered across to Madeleine’s page. The boy had filled out a bit in the weeks since

they had been here. Still he was a skinny child and his hair next to Madeleine held the same

sheen of redness. For a moment he frowned as an elusive thought sifted through reason, but a

knock at the door interrupted him. Quinlan stood there with a man he had not seen before. A

man covered with the mud of a long ride and wearing the livery of David of Scotland.

‘You are summoned to Edinburgh, Alex. King David sent you this and told me that I should wait

and ride back with you.’

‘Indeed?’ With a barely concealed impatience he took the missive and unfurled it. A direct order

to attend to the King. Alexander knew that he could not afford to ignore it.

‘Send for Lady Randwick, Quinlan. This concerns her. And ready the horses.’

Madeleine arrived in the Hall in less than ten minutes, the smell of herbs and soil on her hands

and clothes. Around her neck she wore a clumsy array of shells and nuts threaded on to yarn.

When she saw where he looked she smiled. ‘Your son made it for me, my lord, as a present. He

collected the nuts in the woods. I am not certain where he got the shells from—’

104

She broke off as he reached out to touch one. Close. But not close enough, her breasts swelling

liquid-warm with the proximity of his hand. Shaking her head, she tried to regain the sense of

their conversation.

‘They were his mother’s. She collected such things.’

‘Then I shall dismantle the necklace carefully after I have worn it today and give you back the

treasures.’

‘No. They were Gillion’s to do with as he wanted. He obviously wanted you to have them.’

Madeleine was unnerved by the distracted tone he now used, given her own ridiculous

breathlessness, and unnerved further when her eyes fell on the parchment on the desk. Even

from this distance the royal seal of Scotland was unmistakable, the red lions rampant against

gold.

‘David has sent for me?’

‘Nay. For me. He asks that I attend him immediately.’

‘Noel demanded this?’

‘Yes.’

She felt her blood run cold. First the Church and now the King. Her enemies were gathering with

a remarkable speed and such an order put everything here at risk.

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