Between Read Online Free Page B

uninterested. Aiden unpinned the plaid that hung over his shoulder and swung it onto the ground as a picnic blanket. The now-familiar shimmer passed through me and a basket of food miraculously appeared on his cloak. He’d cast a scrumptious collection of bread, cheese, salami and fruit. I sat down on the blanket and nibbled at the food, trying to still my racing pulse.
    “ So you said you stayed here for three years with your uncle when you were younger,” I asked. “What was that like?”
    “ Alex Fraser was married to my mam’s sister, and when I turned fourteen, they took me under their wing to get proper training. The Frasers were quite wealthy, not only providing horses for the royal court, but also shipping in silk from China. Besides the château, Uncle Alex also had an office in Paris. He took me with him a couple of times, but mostly I stayed here in Versailles.” He broke off a piece of the baguette.
    “ What were they like, your aunt and uncle?”
    He pulled a small knife from his knee-high sock and sliced off a chunk of cheese. “Well, they were a fair bit older than my parents. Aunt Margaret was a right pistol and kept the house in order like the captain of an army. Nothing slipped by her and she had a nasty temper if you crossed her. Which, mind you, never happened more than once.” He waggled his eyebrows and I laughed. “But she was also very funny, with a quick wit and a dry sense of humor.
    “ Uncle Alex was a practical man with a keen mind for business. He was highly esteemed in the royal court and wanted to pass on his legacy but with no children of his own, he’d only us MacRae lads to hope for. It was hard at first because he insisted we only speak French and I didn’t know a word of it before I came. He spoke fluent Gaelic and English, so that wasn’t the issue. He just wanted me to know French and that was the fastest way to learn. I couldn’t even find the privy on the first day!”
    He laughed heartily at the memory. “Luckily, a servant took pity on me and showed me the way. I used a great deal of body language in the beginning to communicate, but it didn’t take long before I could understand conversations. I had tutors who taught me to read and write as well, and I was fully fluent by the end of the first year. I guess Uncle Alex knew what he was doing, aye?”
    I found myself jealous of his intense language training but pushed the thought aside. “Wow, fluent after just one year? That’s amazing. I took French in school for four years and I wouldn’t consider myself anywhere close to fluent.”
    His eyebrows went up in surprise. “C’est vrai? Je peux peut-être t’apprendre le français moi-même.”
    “ Oui, s’il vous plaît!” I nodded, proud to have understood his offer. “But I don’t think I’d want you to teach me by only speaking French until I caught on. I mean, what if I had to use the 'privy?'” I reached over and poked him in the ribs.
    “ Hey!” He caught me by the wrists and made a big show of defending himself. In our teasing, he ended up pulling me forward until I was nearly sitting in his lap. The heat of his body warmed me through my light pink blouse. I opened my mouth but promptly forgot what I was going to say, I was so distracted by the closeness of his lips. He cleared his throat and I straightened so that I wasn’t all over him anymore. An invisible spot on my thumbnail became suddenly fascinating as I worked to avoid his gaze.
    “ No, actually,” he continued. “You’ll never need to use the privy here.” I glanced up, surprised.
    “ What? Why not?” It was true, as I thought about it. I’d been here for—how long?—and hadn’t once had the urge to go to the bathroom.
    “ Well, I think it’s because we cast all the food ourselves, so it’s not really there. You don’t actually have to eat at all. We just do it because we enjoy it, not because we need to.”
    “ But when I woke up this morning, you offered me breakfast and