Forbidden Magic Read Online Free Page A

of Wellington!"
    A flood of emotions coursed through Jewel, but an odd fear overrode them all, leaving her knees weak, her pulse quick, her stomach fluttering. She stood unmoving, her lips silent.
    "Didst thou hear, Jewel?" Dawn asked excitedly. "'Tis Amery!" She turned back to her sister.
    "Is he still there?"
    "I... I don't know. I did not hear of what they spoke, but perchance they have remained. Why?" Lynette questioned.
    "We must see him, of course!" Dawn smiled happily. "Mayhap even a moment to speak. If he has just now returned, methinks he doth not know of Lady Jewel's presence. Come," she urged, pulling at her sister's sleeve, "we must find a brush with which to bring the shine to Jewel's hair." She paused abruptly, appraising her friend from head to toe, her nose wrinkling. "You should wear the mauve damask gunna, Jewel, but time has flown. The yellow must do."
    Taking her hand, Dawn led the silent girl to the chair she had vacated earlier and gently pushed her down into it, then stood back to watch Lynette stroke the long auburn curls to a coppery glow. When her sister had finished. Dawn smiled approvingly. "Methinks he will be pleased," she announced with a nod of her head.
    "He would have to be old and lacking wits sot to agree," Lynette concurred with a girlish grin. She sobered almost instantly. "Thou wilt allow me to go along, Dawn?"
    Dawn gave her sister a sharp look. "Only if you promise to hold your tongue and not giggle like a child."
    A faint line appeared on the other's brow. "I am not a child. I am older than you," she objected.
    Dawn raised a questioning brow yet chose not to voice her opinion on the matter; rather, she settled her attention on their companion again. But once she saw the troubled look on Jewel's face, her own brow wrinkled in wonderment. "Dost something worry you, Jewel?" she asked quietly.
    Rising slowly, Jewel went to the window of the room to stare outside once more. "Yes," she half whispered. "For years I have thought of our first meeting, the joy, the excitement of it. But now that it has come, I wish to delay it. I fear he will turn from me as he has from Gwynne. I do not know if I could bear the shame of it."
    "But Gwynne was not his betrothed, the maiden his father had chosen for him to marry," Dawn pointed out. "You are different. And the sight of you alone will cause his feet to remain still. Would you care to prove me wrong?"
    Not disheartened when Jewel remained silent, Dawn decided on another approach. "You have always admired my mother's ring," she said, cunningly studying the piece of jewelry on her finger. To prove to you how strongly I believe, I'll give you this ring if I'm wrong and Sir Amery turns from you as if you are not there."
    "Twould not be fair," Jewel replied dispassionately, her attention still lingering on the roofs of the buildings thai surrounded the royal palace. "You will lose and be forced to explain your foolishness for a bare finger."
    "But Jewel," Dawn moaned impatiently, her temper surfacing. "You must meet with him sometime. You cannot always hide in your room. Twould make the wedding ceremony difficult if the priest were forced to run from one place to another to hear the vows spoken!" Her anger ebbed when she noticed the tiny dimple appear at the corner of Jewel's mouth.
    "Yea, and if the kind father had reached a goodly number of years, he would find his breath short for all the exercise." Jewel grinned, envisioning the scene. She looked over at her friend. "And you are right, as always. 'Twould only postpone my agony to seek the shadows of my chambers." She straightened, smoothed the wrinkles from her gunna and started toward the door. "Come, my love-struck friends. We shall feast our eyes on King Richard's knights."
    Grinning excitedly. Dawn and Lynette hurriedly followed their friend from the room and fell into step on either side of Jewel as they made their way down this long corridor. Each grew silent with her own thoughts. Lynette