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"Sure," Sally slurred, and then whispered loudly, "Just don’t tell my husband about Bill He’s the jealous type"

"I won’t," Jayr promised as she handed her off to the trainer To him, she said, "Have Eric follow you in Sally’s car Thank you, Bill" She turned to inspect the other women who had not yet left, and made her choices "Sara, Candace, Ellie, may I speak with you for aroom All three had worked as hostesses at the Realm for many years Over time, like many of the other females on the staff, they had also become trusted friends and allies who occasionally performed other services for the Kyn

The woenerous pay and decent working conditions, but because after the Realht, they had their pick of the unattached Kyn males Jayr made it clear to the women who chose to provide pleasure for the men of the Realm that they had the option to refuse anyone they wished at any time She also did not allow any fehts each arrison, ould otherwise have had to go out and hunt for hureat care and respect

"Lord Byrne is restless tonight," she told the wo to entertain hilance with Ellie "All three of us again?"

Jayr shrugged "He is quite restless"

Sara, a dark-skinned islander with a beautiful accent, flashed a devilish sirls"

Jayr escorted the women back up to Byrne’s chamber, and pretended not to hear them as they chatted on how they could best entertain herto Byrne’s weapons or keeping his chamber in order, but she despised it Had she been a normal woman, she could have seen to all his needs

Had you been a normal woman, her conscience chided, he never would have made you his seneschal

Jayr let the women into the chamber but reements for the last of the tourneyers, perforh the ever-present pile of paperwork in the o and see to straightening Rainer’s ar; she would have to call his seneschal, Navarre, and learn what arrangekenis

Instead, Jayr stood and waited outside while the women entertained her master It wasn’t that she didn’t have faith in the wohts with Byrne--but that she didn’t trust his mood

Or her own How could she have been so blunt with him?

Jayr knew she had said too much The ease between them relied on the formality of the traditional relationship between lord and seneschal She also took great pains to keep hi her as a mere female Now that Byrne knew she did not take lovers, would he pity her? Did he even suspect how much she wished she could be the one in his bed?

If he kne often she had ih

Because she was alone and had nothing to do but listen for any indication of Byrne’s displeasure, Jayr’s ies formed in her mind, tableaus to acco through the door

A big, virile man like Byrne could easily pleasure three human females at the same time He would strip them bare first and have them pile around hi not only his scent but his hands and , drenched in the scent of heather, before he rolled Ellie onto her back and plowed into her As he iers on Candace Once he had brought the two use their mouths on hihts becae I will not see that

She wished she could blaination, but she knew exactly hoell her master could pleasure a woman

Jayr had firsthand experience

It should never have happened Not there, not with a battle raging only a field away Not to a girl who had spent most of her life shut away in a convent Not to the warrior who lay dying in her are of Bannockburn in late June, only a day before the ar up the old Roe ford In the hills a rebel force of Scots only half the size of the English are, where the narrow flatlands between the e She had tried to walk out, but the Scots had blocked all paths through the forests with barricades of branches and trees as well as cleverly disguised pit traps An old lish would outflank Robert the Brus

Even now it seemed impossible that so manyhours she had spent hiding in the root cellar of the inn, listening to the thunderous advance of the English cavalry and the barbaric shouts of the Scots pike all who came near them on their wall of fifteen-foot spears

The innkeeper caainst an ar the line The English archers had crossed the gorge and fired their arrows too early; they slaughtered hundreds of their own cavalry Scots infantry When the Scots wavered under the rain of arrows, Keith the Marischal had charged out of his hiding place in the woods, leading five hundred mounted warriors into the field to scatter the bowlish ranks, it was later said, took the day as lish would sware, the innkeeper and his wife had throw Jayr out, bolting the door against her She went froain her new sanctuary As the Scots advanced in the distance, driving their enee, she walked out into thefor the densest part of the forest There she would have to find a place to hide until the battle was done

She had to cross one last pasture to reach the trees, and in the center of it she cae of the pit trap

Unlike those scattered through the woods, this pit was san to walk around it when she heard a roan