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Drea within a dream, she finally remeht get back home The way to escape the Hawk and all his infinite promises of passion and pain

She akened by the i herself from the silken sheets, she crossed the rooht

Eberhard’s chess set

She could finally recall with perfect clarity what she’d been doing h time to land on the Co up the pieces of Eberhard’s chess set

That dratted chess set really was cursed When she’d swiped it from Eberhard’s house, she’d been careful not to touch the pieces Eberhard had often joked about the curse, but Adrienne preferred to give legends, curses, and myths a wide berth After she’d pilfered the set, she had left it packed, intending to unpack it only if she needed to sell it

She knew she’d had the black queen in her hand when she’d appeared on Red Coone from there? She certainly didn’t have it now Had one of the maids taken it? Would she have to confront the despicable Red Coet it back?

She shook her head dejectedly It had to be somewhere at the Comyn keep, and wherever it was she had to make an effort to find it It could take her home Could she find her way back to the Co scrubby backroads for two thousand miles, Adrienne de Simone could find her way anywhere But quickly, while she was still under cover of the night And before her resolve weakened

Thirty h the kitchen, she’d found an oiled sack and filled it with crusty breads and cheeses and a few apples Tavis snored in his chair by the door, his hand furled about a half-full glass of--she sniffed cautiously--pure grain alcohol from the smell of it After a quick stop in the Green Lady’s rooiven her, she’d be ready to go

Slipping from the kitchen, she moved quickly down the short corridor and pushed open the door to the Green Lady’s room Her eyes flared with dismay There the Hawk slept, a white linen sheet wrapped around his legs, his torso bare to the dawn’s caress His dark head tossed against the white pillows, and he slept alone--grasping in his arms the dress she’d worn that day she’d taken the dart

They called hi’s whore, she reminded herself Perhaps there was actually a royal appointment to such a post Or perhaps he was si that he’d earned the title all by hiain be one of many

Adrienne spied her boots on the wooden chest at the foot of the bed Eyes carefully averted fro husband, she slipped them from the burnished pine lid and skittered back toward the door on kitten paws, closing it gently behind her

And now the difficult part Guards were posted all over the castle She would have to flee through the gardens, down the eternal bridge to the gatehouse, and through the east tower She’d run froe so

Hawk slitted one eye open and watched her leave Hehisas he lived and breathed, and he had a hell of a lot ht in hirabbed his kilt, knotting it loosely at his waist

So that’s the way it was going to be, heless than savory in his past, and she would run He hadn’t pegged her as the skittish type He’d thought there was a lass of fiery mettle beneath her silken exterior, but one breath of his sordid past and she was ready to leave him After the pleasure she’d so obviously experienced in his arms, still--to walk away

Well, where the hell did she think he’d learned how to give pleasure?

Oh, nay The next time his wife lay in his arypsy potions to make him detached Then he would truly show her the benefits she reaped fro her his love, freely and openly He, who had never offered anything more than physical pleasure for a short ti this woman his life

And still she would not accept hi about what it ’s whore Olivia had been about to tell her, there in the gardens Olivia, who had ruthlessly exploited the Hawk’s servitude to the king by petitioning Jarant her those carnal favors he’d previously denied her Olivia, who had given James a whole neay to hued hienerated with a fir of his formidable will