She pushed him away, playful. “You can’t switch sides like that.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up. “It’s too late. I’ve switched already, and since you’ve forbidden switching that quickly again, I’m stuck opposing you.”
“Congratulations,” she said. “You’ve just described our entire relationship.” She took his hand, her eyes going serious again. “I’m not sorry we got married. About the way it happened, maybe, and all the discomfort we’ve put each other through. But not that we got married.”
The way Gifford smiled was so full of hope and relief, it made Jane’s breath catch, and she had the strongest urge to stand on her toes and press her lips to his. But then he glanced toward the tent flap. “It’s almost ferret time.”
He tried to pull away, but Jane held tighter to his hands and shook her head.
“I don’t want to change tonight.” She hugged him, burying her face against his shoulder. “I want more than these few minutes, Gifford. G.”
“I know,” he whispered. He held her tight. “Me too.”
Jane clung to him like he was her anchor. Some nights she was resigned to the change, and others she fought and knew she would not win. But right now she resisted the flickers of light with all her will.
She felt the magic fill her. Then it drained away, and Jane opened her eyes, expecting to be small and furry and cupped against Gifford’s chest.
Only the last part was true.
Gifford held her against him, but it was her human hair that he stroked, and her human legs that she stood upon, and her human eyes that met his.
Awe filled his face. “You . . . broke your curse.”
She was still trembling with the anticipation of the change. Maybe they’d been wrong about the time. After weeks of living half lives with short times at sunrise and sunset, they’d both learned how long they typically had together, but maybe they’d been wrong.
“You didn’t want to become a ferret,” Gifford continued, “so you stayed human.”
“It wasn’t that,” she breathed. “I wanted to stay with you. That was my heart’s desire.”
Wonder and disbelief warred on his face, but finally a wide smile won as he cupped her face in his hands.
Heart pounding, Jane leaned forward. They were close. So close.
Cloth rippled and torchlight shone in. “G—” Edward stopped halfway into the tent. “Oh. I’m sorry, Jane, I thought you were a ferret.”
For a moment, Jane wished she were a ferret. It’d be less embarrassing than her cousin walking in on . . . something. A kiss that didn’t happen.
She leaned back and caught her breath, resigned. The kingdom had to come first. “It’s all right. I learned how to control it at last. I think I’ll remain a girl tonight.”
“Good. That’s good.” Edward flashed a tense smile and turned to Gifford. “We’re having a strategical meeting in my tent.”
Gifford turned to look at Jane. “You should come with us.”
Jane froze. Go with them? To plan? To strategize?
Edward stared at Gifford. “We’ll be planning a battle, G. The men, I mean. Well, and Bess, of course.”
“Which is exactly why Jane should join us,” Gifford said. “She’s excellent at planning.”
Jane looked back and forth between them.
“All right,” she said. “Let’s go. I have lots of ideas.”
The three of them walked to the tent where the leaders of their assembled forces—Archer, Bess, the commanders of the French and Scottish armies—were standing around a table that bore a map of London. Gifford spent a few minutes pointing out different places of interest—what might be a useful hill and where they might focus their attempts to enter the city.
“That’s the plan?” Jane asked after a few minutes of listening to Edward and Archer bicker over the best place to attack the city wall. “To besiege London?”
Edward shrugged. “We have to take London somehow.”
“London has never crumbled under siege, not in all of recorded history,” Jane pointed out.
“But it’s not as though Mary will meet us on the battlefield.” Edward coughed lightly. “She won’t send out her army when she doesn’t think she needs to. The rules of engagement mean nothing to her.”
Jane had a sudden idea.
“Then the rules of engagement must mean nothing to us,” she announced. All the men in the room frowned. “London cannot be taken. And it doesn’t need to be taken.”
Mary hadn’t needed an army to take London. Yes, she’d had one, but they’d just sat around the wall being scary while Mary intimidated the Privy Council into submission and seized the throne.
“What do you propose, Jane?” Bess gave her an encouraging smile.
“We take Mary.”
“Take her where?” asked the French commander.