Naamah's Kiss (52 page)

I laughed. "I am now ."

"I do." Jehanne suited actions to words. She ducked beneath an overhanging frond of a giant fern and kissed me, gently at first, then with a measure of passion, her tongue darting past my lips. Her intoxicating scent enveloped me.

It felt very, very good.

I kissed her back, slid my arms around her neck. I didn't want her to go. I wanted to see her naked with fern shadows painted on her skin. I wanted to taste her again. "Don't leave," I whispered. "Not yet."

If I'd said such a thing to Raphael, he would have patted my cheek and told me I needed bed-rest. But Jehanne was Naamah's child twice over. She merely gave me one of her sparkling looks. "Well, it's a good thing I told the guard to see we weren't disturbed, isn't it?"

It may not have been a benediction, but it was the nearest thing to it I'd known in love-making. It was slow, languid, and healing. And I knew that whatever else transpired, I would always be a little bit in love with Jehanne, and I would always remember her best as I saw her that day in my sunlit, plant-filled bedchamber, green shadows dappling her fair skin and the pale night-blooming flower of her marque.

"I have to go," she said at last when the shadows were growing long. "I'm dining with Daniel this evening."

"Ohhh." I'd quite forgotten about the King. "What does he, um" I gestured vaguely at the tangled bed linens. "Think of this?"

Jehanne smiled. "His majesty is highly amused."

"Truly?"

She reached for her gown. "Oh, yes. He told me I had to choose between you and Raphael." I stared at her. "I'm very angry at Raphael," she added, stepping gracefully into her gown. "Lace my stays, please?"

I obeyed silently.

"Moirin." Jehanne turned and took my chin in her hand when I'd finished, forcing me to look up at her. "This isn't some ploy in a game, if that's what you're wondering. I haven't told you a single falsehood."

"So what am I?" I gestured again. "What is this?"

She cocked her head. "What do you want it to be? Would you like me to declare you my royal companion? Court witch, mayhap?"

I had to laugh. "I don't know."

"Then don't worry about it." Jehanne kissed me. "As a scion of House Courcel, you're welcome to stay here as long as you like. And you're here under my protection because it pleases me to have you here. Rest. Recover. I'll come see you on the morrow. And when you're stronger, you can return to your lessons with that delightful Ch'in gentleman, and you and I can have a good long talk about exactly what Raphael and his coterie of arcane scholars are up to in the countryside."

The latter, I didn't relish. "You thought Master Lo Feng was delightful?"

"Quite." She twisted her hair into a lover's-haste knot. "He's very modest, but Daniel says in his own country, he's known as the Ninth Immortal."

I hadn't known that. "Who are the other eight?"

Jehanne laughed. "I haven't the faintest idea." She stooped and kissed me again. "You be sure and tell me when you find out."

"I will," I promised. "Jehanne thank you."

She raised her brows. "Why? Do you imagine for an instant I wasn't enjoying myself? I haven't bothered to feign pleasure since I made my marque."

"No." I smiled. "I didn't think that. But I do think you may have saved my life."

"Ah." Jehanne gave me one of her complicated looks, then smiled back at me. "Mayhap I did at that."

With that, my unlikely rescuer departed.

I fell asleep with the scent of her still lingering on my skin.

The hardest part about recovering was facing the Court. "You're stalling," Jehanne accused me at the end of a week's time. "You're obviously feeling well enough."

I sighed. I couldn't deny it, having just demonstrated it at length and with considerable enthusiasm. "Will Raphael be there?"

She shook her head. "He's not been to Court since the night of the ball. He's in a furious sulk." She paused. "Are you ready to talk about him?"

"Nooo." I wound a lock of her hair around my fingers. "Will Thierry be there?"

"It's a state dinner," Jehanne said wryly. "Yes, the Dauphin will be present. But don't worry, the brunt of his anger is directed at me." She sighed, too. "It's my own fault. I shouldn't have dressed him down in public."

"He had strong feelings for you once," I said.

"I know." She pillowed her head on one arm. "I realized it too late. I would have handled it differently if I'd known. I should have treated him as a young man, with respect. Instead, I treated him like a boy who'd lost his mother." One shoulder shrugged. "I was young; I thought it was the proper thing to do. He was insulted, and he resented me for supposing I could take her place."

"Did you?" I asked.

"Never." Jehanne traced the line of my collarbone. "Thierry never understood that his father could let himself love me because I'm nothing like his mother." She smiled sadly. "Nor that she'll always be the one woman I can never compete with. She'll always be first in Daniel's heart."

"That's why Lianne's poem made him so melancholy?" I asked.

She nodded. "And that's why he tolerates my foibles. We're unfaithful to one another in different ways."

"Sad," I murmured.

"Yes, and I'd forgotten you were spying on us that night."

"I wasn't"

"You were." Jehanne kissed me and bit my lower lip lightly. "Come to dinner, my lovely witchling. People are starting to say I've locked you away in a dungeon."

I glanced around the room filled with sunlight and greenery. "It's a pleasant prison."

"And you're a charming prisoner, but I don't think you're meant to be kept in a cage, Moirin." She untangled her body from mine and slid out of bed. "Besides, I like to parade my conquests."

I eyed her, trying to guess if she was jesting.

I didn't think so.

Jehanne smiled sweetly at me. "Come to dinner."

So I went to dinner.

At the beginning, it was every bit as uncomfortable as I'd feared it would be. I dressed carefully with a maid's assistance. I wore the bronze gown I'd first worn at Court, though not the emerald eardrops Raphael had given me, and surely not the comb that had been Thierry's gift. Jehanne sent her Captain of the Guard to escort me. He was unfailingly polite. Still, the moment we entered the dining hall, there was a little silence, followed by covert stares and murmurs. It was much the same as my first appearance at Courtand altogether different.

Across the hall, Thierry glared daggers at me. His comrades whispered.

I breathed the Breath of Earth's Pulse, slow and deep.

"Lady Moirin." King Daniel clasped my hands and bent to give me the kiss of greeting. "I'm pleased you're feeling better."

I flushed. "Thank you, your majesty."

Jehanne gave me a wicked smile. "Ever so much better, aren't you?"

I scowled at her and she laughed, linking her arm with mine. "Come, sit. Try not to knock over any wineglasses."

And that, it seemed, was that.

I'd been Raphael's witch; now I was the Queen's witch. The speculation was confirmed and the gossip swirled elsewhere. At the far end of the banquet table, a passionate discussion about sending an embassy to Terra Nova broke out.

King Daniel's face darkened.

And I watched Jehanne turn the tide of conversation deftly, charming him, cheering him. Seated uncomfortably across the table from me, Prince Thierry looked disconsolate.

"You'd like to go, wouldn't you?" I asked him. "To Terra Nova."

He glowered at me. "What do you care?"

"I care," I said softly.

"Yes." His tone was stiff. "I'd like to go. I'd like to see Terre d'Ange reclaim its role in the world. I'd like a taste of glory and adventure. Is that so wrong?"

I shook my head. "No, of course not." I lowered my voice. "Listen, Thierry I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you."

He toyed with the food on his plate. "You look well," he said at length. "Like you did when I first saw you."

"I'm wearing the same gown."

That won a brief smile from him. "I don't mean the gown, Moirin."

I smiled back at him. "I know."

"She's fickle," Thierry warned me. "Fickle and vain and self-absorbed."

I glanced at Jehanne's exquisite profile. "I know that, too."

"Well. As long as you know." He took a bite of roasted capon, chewed and swallowed. "When all's said and done, I'm glad someone pried you out of de Mereliot's clutches. I just never expected it to be her."

I laughed. "Nor did I."

After that exchange, things were easier between us. It would be an exaggeration to say the balance of the evening was pleasant, but it was tolerable. There was an awkward moment when the King and Queen retired for the night, bidding us to stay and enjoy their hospitality. Everyone rose and bowed or curtsied at their departure. I hesitated, unsure if I was meant to stay or go. I'd never been a royal companionif that was what 1 wasbefore.

Jehanne saw the uncertainty in my face and murmured something to the King, letting go his arm. He nodded.

I had a sudden fear that she meant to ask me to join them. "Your majesty, I hope you don't expect"

"Elua, no!" Jehanne glanced at Thierry. "Moirin, you're my guest. Stay as long as you wish. Enjoy yourself." She reached up to cup the back of my neck and kissed me before the entire Court, then whispered in my ear, "Only remember, I don't like to share."

I understood. It was unfair and unreasonablebut mayhap also for my own good. I agreed to it without a second thought. "I'll see you on the morrow?"

She nodded, eyes sparkling. "If you behave."

I watched them depart the dining hall togetherthe King and Queen of Terre d'Ange, her hand resting in the crook of his arm. My royal mistress and her royal husband, leaving to share the royal bedchamber, the ghost of his lost love between them.

Thierry passed me a flagon of brandy. "Here. It helps."

I sighed, poured, and drank.

It helped.

But despite everything, the days that followed were a good time. I was content to be Jehanne's companion. It was a refuge. Her mercurial moods didn't trouble me. She liked talking to me. I liked to listen to her and I never tired of looking at her. I took a great deal of pleasure in pleasing her; and she took a great deal of delight in introducing me to new pleasures.