Stephen grinned, enjoying the quiet man’s discomfort. “When Adam saw the servant girl cross herself, he got down on his hands and knees and pretended to join Lady Bethany in her search, dragging us down with him.”
Michael laughed. “He even said—loudly enough for everyone in the great hall to hear, mind you, for that is where we were by then—how kind it was of Lady Bethany to help him find what he had been so careless as to misplace, that many ladies of her station would have thought it beneath them and her concern was evidence of a kind heart.”
Pleased by the big man’s clever attempt to divert suspicion away from Beth, Robert clapped him on the shoulder.
Adam cursed and turned even redder.
Robert laughed. “What did Lady Bethany say?”
Stephen’s grin widened. “Naught. She simply looked at Adam as if he were the daft one, then continued with her search.”
“Soon enough the servants assumed Adam had indeed misplaced something,” Michael went on. “A few even offered their services, which we graciously declined.”
“You have my thanks,” Robert said. “I do not wish Lady Bethany to feel unwelcome here.”
“Nor do we,” they chorused.
Stephen lost his grin. “We heard about Donald, Henry, and Douglas. How fares young Davie?”
“One arm is broken. Two teeth are missing. Both eyes are swollen shut. And I suspect a few of his ribs are cracked.”
All three swore fiercely.
Robert turned toward Bethany’s door. “Hie yourselves off now. I shall see to Lady Bethany’s care. And tell Edward I want a bath prepared and a tray brought up to the solar. Mayhap I can convince her to sup with me here, away from prying eyes.”
Nodding, the knights trudged down the hallway.
Pushing open the heavy oak door, Robert took two steps into Bethany’s chamber, then halted. ’Twas empty.
His heart jumped. “Beth?”
This chamber was arranged much like the solar. An enormous bed allowed his brother, who was a bit taller than Robert, to stretch out without his feet hanging off the end. Beside it rested a small table upon which sat parchment and ink that Alyssa used to record her prophetic dreams. A trunk at the foot of the bed contained Alyssa’s possessions. Another against the far wall by the window contained Dillon’s. Two chairs and a larger table, at which Alyssa repeatedly bested Robert at Nine Men’s Morris, rested before the hearth.
Hurrying inside, Robert thrust back the curtains that cloaked the bed.
Empty.
A quick inspection confirmed that Beth was not down on her knees, hidden from his view as she conducted another of her odd searches.
Robert started toward the door, his mouth already opening to bellow for his men’s return, then stopped abruptly. His eyes went to the large, elaborate tapestry that hung on one wall.
Behind it lay a secret door.
With his men standing guard, she would have had no other means of exiting.
Leaving the room, Robert closed the door behind him, strode down the hallway, and threw open the door to the solar.
It, too, appeared to be empty.
“Beth?” he called.
“Aye?” came her response, muffled, but welcome.
Relief trickled through him as he closed the door and crossed to the center of the large room. “Where are you?”
“Is that you, Robert?”
“Aye.”
“Good. I’m under the bed.”
He circled the foot of his large bed and found two slender, trouser-clad legs poking out from beneath the blankets, heels up, toes down. “What are you doing under there?”
“Waiting for you. Would you do me a favor?”
“You have but to ask.”
“Good. Grab my ankles and give them a good yank, would you? I’m stuck.”
Laughing, he knelt beside her, curled his fingers around her ankles just above her small mannish boots and pulled her out from underneath the bed.
The shirt he had lent her rucked up almost to her neck. Beneath it she wore her small black sleeveless tunic and blue breeches that hugged her like a second skin. As luck would have it, the tank top, he thought she called it, wanted to linger beneath the bed, too, sliding up and leaving her slender back bare.
Robert took eager advantage of the few moments he was granted to admire her curves before she rolled over onto her back and sighed.
Poking her lower lip out, she blew her hair out of her eyes and stared up at him. “Hi.”
He smiled and returned her unusual greeting. “Hi.”
Her pretty face and hands were even more smudged than his men’s. Curls surrounded her face in enchanting disarray.
As she lay there, staring up at him with her arms stretched loosely above her head, Robert felt his body harden.