Read Online Time Travel Romances Boxed Set by Claire Delacroix - Free Book Online Page B

proprietary
manner.
    Aurelia inhaled sharply and glared at the
priest, uncertain why the thought of Bard’s whore troubled her so
much. The pair deserved each other!
    The priest shook his head. “No. Baird’s room
is the first one.” He nodded to the left. “This one might as well
be yours.”
    Aurelia blinked, but he was not teasing her.
Though she was a noblewoman, Aurelia had expected accommodation
markedly more austere.
    Like a dank, stone cell.
    “ It’s no big deal,” the
priest said with a shrug, evidently noticing Aurelia’s surprise.
“It’s just one of the guest rooms.”
    Such a room for guests.
    For any guest who stumbled into the
hall.
    Aurelia wandered into the room in disbelief.
She touched the silken softness of the thick bed curtains and felt
the carved solidity of the bedpost beneath.
    Suddenly she thought of all the doors facing
this corridor and swiveled to face the priest. “And the other
doors?” she demanded, half-expecting his answer but not daring to
believe such whimsy possible.
    The priest shoved his hands into pockets
hidden in his chausses. “They’ll all be guest rooms, once they’re
finished.”
    All of them! Aurelia’s mind darted ahead.
There had to be fifty rooms in this hall alone. And Marissa had
made each one finer than the last - simply to entertain guests!
    Oh, she was an expensive indulgence, to be
sure.
    “ How can you imagine that
she is not his whore?” Aurelia demanded, before realizing she had
given voice to the thought.
    The priest hooted with laughter and Aurelia
felt her cheeks stain pink. But his twinkling glance was without
condemnation and oddly enough, his merriment put her in mind of her
lost brother Thord.
    The memory saddened Aurelia.
    The priest sobered when she did not share
his laughter. “Whatever she does now, Marissa hasn’t made any
secret of her ambition to marry Baird, at least to everyone other
than Baird himself.” He frowned. “I wish he’d open his eyes for a
change.”
    Aurelia’s mind flew. Marissa as wife would
be even more influential than she was as whore. It made perfect
sense that she would seek such a position.
    And just as much that the priest would be
adverse to having such a powerful adversary lodged at Bard’s side
over the long term. Evidently, it pleased him that Aurelia and the
whore had not taken to each other.
    But why?
    The pieces fit together with horrifying
precision. The priest had mentioned the prophecy of Aurelia’s birth
in the well. Further, the priest had not made a murmur of protest
when Aurelia had seized the excuse for looking like a fool and
kissed the king.
    Finally and perhaps most tellingly, the
priest had chosen this fine prison for Aurelia.
    Could the priest be planning for her to
marry Bard, son of Erc, instead of that man’s whore? Aurelia’s
mouth went dry. There were too many things lining up to be counted
to be accidental.
    She had to know the truth.
    When Aurelia spoke, she was careful to keep
her tone frivolous. “But what does King Bard think of such plans?
Surely he has a picked a bride for himself?”
    “ Right. He can’t see for
looking when it comes to women.” The priest was skeptical. “And
he’d do better to marry someone with connections
anyhow.”
    Aurelia toyed with the bed curtains.
“Connections?”
    “ Sure! A woman from a
prestigious family, you know, one with property that Baird could
develop, or with an influential father. That’s the kind of wife he
needs, not the daughter of some bank teller in Des Moines who only
wants to spend his money as quickly as he can make it.”
    “ Des Moines?”
    The priest grimaced. “It’s infinitely
forgettable. I’m not surprised that you haven’t heard of it.” He
wagged a warning finger at Aurelia. “But I’ll tell you one thing,
they don’t talk like that in Des Moines.”
    Aurelia kept her mouth shut, because she
could not understand what he was talking about.
    “ She’s as fake as a three
dollar bill. Watch the