Once Upon a Kiss by Nora Roberts

Author:Nora Roberts
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Jove Books
Published: 2012-11-06T22:35:56+00:00

8

Erinn's heart began to race. She rose and stood beside Tynon, gripping his hand as the old servant continued to speak, her voice so low and raspy it was almost as if she were speaking to herself.

"I came upon them by accident. I wasn't spying, not intentionally," she murmured with a shake of her head. "She and Dugal were in a chamber—near the gallery, it was—and they were kissing. Their arms were wrapped around each other—ah, so sweetly. Oh, the picture they made!" Marguerite's gnarled hands lifted toward her heart, resting upon her thin chest. "She loved him, you see, had loved him since she was a girl. It wasn't her fault that her family had arranged for her to be married to King Leiff of Marlbury. What was she to do?" She gazed imploringly at Tynon and Erinn, then went on before either of them could say a word.

"Leiff and Dugal were friends in those days. They lived upon neighboring lands and often hunted together. That day, only three days before King Leiff and Lady Olivia were to be wed, your great-grandfather"—she flicked another glance at Tynon, whose expression was unfathomable, though he gripped Erinn's hand tightly—"invited Leiff and Olivia and the entire court of Marlbury to a banquet in honor of their wedding. If he hadn't...ah, if only he hadn't, everything might have been different."

"How?" Erinn asked as Marguerite lapsed into a dejected silence. "What happened at the banquet?"

"Something terrible. Something that changed the course of the next hundred years." Marguerite spoke heavily. She was no longer looking at either Erinn or Tynon. She was looking toward a spot near the window, seeing something neither of them could see. "During the course of the evening, Olivia and Dugal slipped away together," she said sadly. "To say their last farewells. She was going to honor her parents' wishes and marry a man she didn't love, but she wanted one last moment with the man she did love. Just one moment. Was that so terrible?" She sent Tynon a pleading look, and then her gaze swept to Erinn, who was listening in amazement.

"No," Erinn whispered. "No, it wasn't terrible." She tried to imagine how it had been for the dark-haired Olivia, loving one man, about to be bound in marriage to another.

"What happened to her? To them?" she asked softly.

"A horrible thing. They were discovered. I came upon them from a connecting chamber, nearly stumbled into them, but I saw them in time and ducked behind the curtain of the anteroom. I ought to have left, but I...I couldn't. I was a mere child then, sent on an errand by my mother, but when I saw them locked in each other's arms, I forgot everything else. And she was weeping. My poor pretty lady was weeping. But then, before I could back away, before they could draw apart, King Leiff himself came upon them."

Marguerite was trembling now, and her voice was so low they had to strain to hear it.

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