Free To Kiss in the Shadows by Lynn Kurland Page A

Lianna to come with him. He saw her inside her chamber and set her trunk down by the bed.
    â€œWe will seek out a fair and find you other things to stitch with. Or perhaps the king has a stitcher with thread and cloth to spare.”
    â€œHis Majesty seems to have an abundance of clothing,” she agreed.
    â€œI will see what I can find, then return. Does that suit you?”
    She sat down on the bed and looked up at him with a smile. “And I’ve no doubt you’ve business with your brother.”
    â€œYou see too clearly,” he said with a scowl. “Aye, I’ll see to him, find things for you, then return.” And I’ll find a guard for your door, he added silently. He nodded to Lianna, left the chamber, closed the door, then rewarded his brother with a blow to the belly that should have silenced him for a goodly while.
    Kendrick straightened with a grunt. “What was that for?”
    â€œI’m thinking to woo her, you fool. I do not need your aid.”
    Kendrick grunted. “If she’ll have you.”
    â€œWhy wouldn’t she?”
    â€œWhy indeed?”
    â€œThere’s nothing amiss with me.”
    To his surprise, Kendrick clapped him with a friendly hand on the shoulder.
    â€œTo be sure, brother. But don’t you realize who she is?”
    â€œI was just in the process of trying to discover more about her,” Jason said pointedly, “when you arrived with your bothersome self.”
    â€œOr what she’s doing in the king’s company?” Kendrick continued, as if he hadn’t heard the slur.
    Jason considered briefly, then shook his head. “She’s not his lover. She couldn’t be.”
    â€œShe’s his ward, dolt.”
    Jason blinked. “His ward?”
    â€œAye. She’s Lianna of Grasleigh. Didn’t you know?” Grasleigh. Grasleigh? Jason felt the blood drain from his face. He remembered well hearing of Grasleigh’s death, but he hadn’t stopped to consider the daughter who had been left behind after the family’s slaughter. And what a daughter—one who possessed almost as much wealth as his sire himself.
    â€œYou’ll have trouble with the king,” Kendrick said unhelpfully. “Doubt he’ll want a third son for such as she.”
    Jason doubted it as well. He leaned back against the wall, wondering why he hadn’t been quick enough to have found out who she was before Kendrick did him the honor of informing him.
    Kendrick punched his arm. “Cheer up. We’ll think of something.”
    â€œThank you,” Jason said faintly. “I think.”
    Kendrick laughed. “Your lack of faith in me wounds me. And when did you fall for her? I thought you were off to pursue your noble cause in France. Though I can understand why you would want her. She is quite remarkable.”
    â€œAnd she doesn’t want you.”
    â€œYou don’t know that,” Kendrick said with a glint in his eye.
    Jason sensed a battle in the offing. At least that might take his mind off the devastating tidings he’d just received.
    â€œShe has two eyes,” Jason said. “And a nose.”
    Well, that was enough to do it, Jason found. And as he brawled with his brother in the passageway, he considered how it was he might attain the impossible.
    Such as a third son wedding with the richest heiress in England.

Seven
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    Lianna sat in a comfortable chair under a tree, enjoying the sunshine and poking through the basket of thread Jason had amassed for her over the past three days. At first she’d been too grateful to complain about the colors. Now, she had begun to suspect he’d chosen them with great care.
    For they were mostly cheerful colors.
    Not the colors of shadows.
    Indeed, she suspected that fashioning a shadow or a dragon or anything else gloomy or grim with any of these things would be quite impossible. And that was enough to bring