Free Claire Delacroix by The Rogue

recollection of his recent kiss.
    I closed my eyes, feeling a phantom parody of his touch slide across my flesh, and willed myself not to flush.
    “I trust you will not be troubled that I have yet to air the linens,” Ada said, her gleeful tone implying that she expected precisely the opposite. “It is but one night since my lord slumbered here.”
    “He was not here last evening?”
    “No. He did not return from his errand.” Ada smiled thinly. “I apologize for my lack, but you must be so tired from your journey that you could sleep in a stable.”
    “Which is undoubtedly what you would prefer,” I had not intended to say as much but the words slipped over my lips.
    We stared at each other, Ada’s hostility suddenly unguarded.
    “He should not have granted Ravensmuir to you,” she spat. “It was a mistake. It must have been a jest he never intended to see honored. He could not have bequeathed Ravensmuir to you - he would not have done so, had he lived another day!”
    She then stepped back, alarmed that she too had uttered words she had not intended to say, and clapped a hand to her mouth.
    I could not resist temptation. “My lord Merlyn had a great fondness for blunt speech,” I whispered wickedly. “Perhaps it is his specter that forces the truth from our lips.”
    “Do not say as much!”
    I advanced upon a horrified Ada. “Perhaps he left Ravensmuir to me for that very reason, that I might conjure him back from the dead. You know my repute as well as any, Ada.”
    “You would not!”
    “Indeed, are you not the one who called me the Witch of Kinfairlie? Does that mean that you, above all others, most believe it?”
    Ada paled slightly and stepped back. Under the eye of that carving, it did indeed seem that all the dark arts were possible.
    I pursued her with measured steps. “Perhaps I will use those gifts which you accused me of having. Perhaps I shall summon Merlyn this night and set him to haunting this place. Perhaps I shall dispatch Merlyn’s specter to torment you, Ada Gowan, in retaliation for the wickedness you showed my sister.”
    Ada glanced quickly over the chamber, then met my gaze again. She spoke boldly and scornfully, though she clung to the crucifix strung on a lace around her neck. “And what would you know of my lord Merlyn? You, who fled his bed in a fortnight?”
    “In name and in body, I was Merlyn’s wife, just as I am his widow, and now his heiress.”
    “You were his harlot! You will not stay this time either,” Ada insisted even as she eased toward the stairs. “You will not last the night in this chamber!.”
    “Perhaps it is you who will flee in the night, Ada,” I said, fully expecting as much.
    “You should have been tried and executed for your sorcery!”
    The depth of her hatred for me was sobering. I watched her as she glared at me and tried to find reason in her accusations. “To whom do you think Merlyn ought to have bequeathed Ravensmuir?” I asked quietly. “Surely not to you?”
    “What I think and what I do not think is not for you to know,” she snarled, but I did not miss the flash of her eyes.
    Fear? Or had it been greed? I would have to think about her words and their import. Later, after I slept and my thoughts were more clear.
    After I made my peace with Merlyn’s death.
    I spoke crisply, as if untroubled by this chamber. “I should prefer to break my fast early on the morrow, the better that we might review the inventories.”
    Resentment darkened her eyes. “As you wish, my lady.”
    Ada would have turned away, but I put out my hand and the gesture made her pause. “I would have the keys, if you please.”
    “You have no need of them.”
    “Indeed I do.” I strolled after her. “In fact, I feel a certain threat toward my own health on this evening and I would secure my door against it.”
    “My lord Merlyn never locked his chamber door!”
    “My lord Merlyn is dead. I would prefer not to join him in that state this night.” I put