The Intended by May McGoldrick Page A

face. Witnessing what had occurred here, what the lass had
done... and she a niece to the dead queen! Graves pondered a
moment. Nay, it couldn’t be, he decided, shaking his head. By Jesu,
he was even starting to think like these damned English.
     
    “I’ll come back,” Jaime vowed, touching the
physician on the arm as she moved toward her swaying cousin.
    Before she even reached the door, Jaime could
see the glazed look of horror that was fixed on her cousin’s face.
The sight was hardly one that Mary was accustomed to. The filthy
cell, the blackening blood, the battered and half-naked body of the
injured Malcolm.
    “Is he dead?” Mary whispered again, leaning
heavily on the door frame. Her face was a white mask.
    Jaime realized that her cousin had not heard
a word that had been uttered by Graves. Not needing another patient
at the moment, Jaime took Mary by the arm and led her into the
enclosed yard and out of the physician’s earshot. Standing in the
late-afternoon sun, Jaime squeezed Mary’s hand. It took only a few
moments for the younger woman to regain most of her composure.
    Then, looking at Jaime with eyes wide, Mary
started with dismay. “Oh my, Jaime. The blood...your...your cloak!
Your hair! Your face!” The young woman, again too upset to talk,
flapped her arms like a bird in distress. “Jaime,
Edward...and...oh, my! Look at you!”
    Jaime took Mary’s hands in hers. “Take a deep
breath,” she ordered softly. “You have news of Edward?”
    Mary nodded and took not one but a few short
breaths.
    Jaime waited impatiently for the other woman
to regain her composure. A stable boy passed by, carrying two
buckets of grain and gawking openly at the two. Horses could be
heard, stamping and snorting impatiently to be fed. A cart of
feed—pulled by an oxen being led by a tall, stick of a man—creaked
into the enclosure from some other part of the series of granaries,
smithies, and stables that comprised the stable area. Suddenly,
Mary’s attention was captured by the activities going on around
them, as if it were a world she was seeing for the first time.
    “That’s enough breathing for today,” Jaime
said, interrupting her cousin’s study. “What of Edward?”
    Jaime knew that although
Mary had lived on this estate for most of her life, the past few
moments constituted the longest period of time she ever spent in
the stables. When they hunted, the grooms brought the horses to the
house. Jaime cleared her throat to get the other woman’s
attention.
    Sheepishly, Mary turned back to her cousin.
“Oh,” she exclaimed. “I have news. Lord Surrey has returned from
court this afternoon.”
    “I wondered. There was a great commotion a
little while ago when the horses were brought down.
    “Aye, well there’s more. Something has
happened. Effie, my wardrobe maid, who has a...well, who is
friendly with Surrey’s second groom...a coarse young man whom I can
never see amounting to...”
    “Please, Mary!” Jaime cut in, her impatience
bubbling to the surface. “What has happened?”
    Mary scowled at her cousin. “Well, the duke
and Edward have been summoned to Nonsuch Palace. That’s what has
happened!”
    Jaime’s heart leapt with excitement. With
Edward waiting on the king, she would be able to spend the time
needed to nurse Malcolm back to health—without involving Edward at
all. Jaime’s hand squeezed Mary’s arm. “And have they gone?”
    “Nay, how could they,” Mary responded, “when
Edward is searching high and low for you?”
    “What? You mean he’s looking for me now?”
    “Aye,” Mary said, prying her cousin’s fingers
from her arm. “And if I have bruises from your rough handling of
me, Jaime Macpherson...”
    Jaime looked about her nervously. “Do you
know where he is now, Mary?”
    “Probably coming this way, I’d wager—were
wagering a ladylike pursuit. I heard him questioning your maid, but
Caddy feigned total ignorance—a marvelous performance—and