To Kiss in the Shadows Read Online Free PDF Page A

even if he’d kept his eyes closed—”
    Another voice spoke, a voice that sent chills down Jason’s spine though he had never in his life been frightened by the sound of a woman speaking.
    â€œShe must be stopped.”
    Jason looked at the woman standing next to him. Did they speak of her? All he could see was the top of her head, so he couldn’t judge by her expression if that were the case. But he could well imagine her not wanting to go inside and listen to any more of that rot—even if it had naught to do with her.
    â€œDo you require something inside there?” he whispered.
    She did not look up, even at that. “I thought to fetch my stitchery, but I daresay there isn’t a need for that now.”
    â€œNo doubt your gear will keep,” Jason agreed, fully intending to wish her good fortune, bid her farewell, and then continue his search.
    But two things stopped him.
    One was that he’d heard his brother’s name begin to be bandied about inside the solar. And the second was the woman who stood before him, cloaked in shadows, listening to the drivel being spewed inside that solar as if she needed to hear it. He stood not two paces from her but suddenly felt as if they two stood alone in the world. It was all he could do to breathe normally.
    Who was this woman?
    She stepped back from the door and pulled the hood of her cloak up around her face. And the moment was gone.
    â€œI thank you for your kindness, my lord,” she said. “I’m sure my things will be safe enough.”
    Jason had his doubts about that, but he also had no desire to enter the solar to find out. He was also beginning to wonder if he might need to break his fast soon. Obviously, he was faint from hunger and from the sneezes that threatened to overwhelm him at every turn. He had no ties to the woman before him. There was no good reason to feel as though the last thing he should do was walk away from her. By the saints, he had no idea what she even looked like! He shook his head to clear it. The sanest thing he could do was turn tail and flee.
    Aye, that was wise. But he could not leave her where she was, not with the talk that was going on inside that solar.
    â€œMight I es ... ah— ahchoo —” he said with a mighty sneeze. He dragged his sleeve across his face and tried to regain his dignity. “Might I escort you to wherever you’re going?” he said again. Perhaps the sunshine would bum his illness—and his sudden madness—from him before it overcame him completely.
    â€œThere’s no need,” the woman protested.
    â€œMy mother would be disappointed in me if I showed such a lack of courtesy,” he said. “And who am I to disappoint her?”
    â€œVery well,” the woman said with a soft sigh. “But it won’t be far. I’m only to go to the barbican gates.”
    Jason bowed to her, then followed her down the passageway.
    â€œWhom go you to meet?” he asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
    â€œNo one of consequence,” she said, her quiet voice almost lost in the bustle of the hall.
    â€œA handsome knight come to woo you?” he asked lightly.
    â€œI should think not,” she said with half a laugh. “Nay, ’tis but a friend I made yesterday in the most unlikely of ways who offered to rescue me from a day passed inside the walls.”
    And given that her alternative would have been sitting in a solar with a handful of poisonous serpents, he could well understand her desire to accept the deliverance.
    They left the great hall and crossed the bailey. Jason tried to steal looks at the woman beside him, but her cloak too thoroughly shadowed her face. He wondered why she chose to go about thusly, especially in the heat of the sun. Perhaps she met a lover for a secret tryst and wanted no one to recognize her. But surely there were few enough people at Henry’s temporary court here that she