An Accidental Seduction Read Free Page A

she had the Gypsy sight. As if she were gifted. She was not. “You lie,” she repeated, “and not particularly well.”
    “What makes you think—” But Savaana interrupted. She could be polite when it suited her. Just now it did not.
    “If he beat you, I believe you would want someone dead,” she said, and tangling her fingers in Rey’s mane, vaulted lightly to his back, but the woman had already scurried around in front, blocking their path.
    “Very well, he doesn’t beat me,” she said, and managed to sound piqued by the fact.
    With a little pressure against Rey’s barrel, Savaana cued him from the trail, but Tilmont turned with him, blocking their way.
    “He’s possessed by the devil.” Her words came out raspy and breathless.
    Savaana raised a brow. “I am told that a bit of meadowsweet tea can be a tonic for madness,” she said, and pressed Rey past the intruder, who was forced to step aside, talking as she did so.
    “I did not say he was mad,” she argued.
    “The tonic is not meant for him.”
    The lady stopped in her tracks, but whether she understood the insult was unclear. “Did your grandfather teach you of herbs?” Her voice was challenging now.
    Savaana didn’t deign to turn her head. “You know nothing of my family.”
    The woman raised her voice. “He’s failing, you know.”
    Savaana tightened her fingers in the piebald’s mane. “He but needs rest.”
    “He needs medicine.”
    “Which I am giving him.” She had almost reached the clearing where they’d camped.
    “And you cannot afford.”
    Anger was growing now. Anger and worry. Savaana turned, glaring through the gathering darkness. “What is it you want?” she asked.
    “I want freedom. I need freedom,” Tilmont said, and strode rapidly through the underbrush toward her. “I have a child. A little boy.” Her voice was thick with sudden tears. “I haven’t seen him since I married. My husband will not permit it. I miss him terribly.”
    Savaana sat unmoving on El Rey, almost believing, then shook her head. “Amazing. Truly.” She nudged the gelding back toward camp. “Even your first lie was better than that,” she said, but Tilmont grabbed her, catching her bright skirts near the knee.
    “Two hundred pounds,” she said. Her haughty, upper-crust accent had slipped a notch, prompting a dozen un-spoken questions. “And no one the wiser.”
    For a moment Savaana was almost breathless with the thought of that much coin, but nothing came without a price. That, too, she had learned as a child. “I fear meadow sweet may not turn the trick in your case. Best to try some poppy with chamomile,” she said, and urged Rey forward.
    But the woman held tight. “I’m not mad,” she hissed,and lifted her face toward the river of moonlight that flowed like white wine into the clearing.
    Savaana’s breath caught tight in her throat, for at that moment she recognized her. It was the face she saw in her mirror. And a dozen half-formed hopes bloomed to life in her soul.

Chapter 1
    “M y lady!” The aging maid’s voice was muffled through the six-panel door of the bedchamber. A portal crafted of solid walnut, it would subdue all but the loudest noises from without. Or within.
    Sitting before a low dresser with gracefully curved legs and a beveled looking glass, Clarette Stenejem studied her regal image. Known as Lady Tilmont since her wedding two months before, she turned her head slightly, examining her high, perfect cheekbones. She was a handsome woman. Her dark hair was tinted with fiery highlights and reached in seductive waves to the middle of her back. Her nose was straight, her eyes a genteel blue against her fair skin. Like a princess, really.
    Noticing a slight blemish above her upper lip, she touched it with a pampered pinky finger and scowled. She was not one to suffer imperfections, not even in this backwater sty where she’d spent the past six days.
    “My lady?” the maid called again from beyond the