Edward rolled his eyes at the tone. Anne had outlandish ideas and often thought of herself before others.
"After the engagement is announced this evening, we will send Katharine, with a chaperone of course, to my sister Louisa in France!" Anne smiled broadly.
Edward arched an eyebrow at his wife. Anne saw the look and pounced on it.
"But my dear, it will be just the thing to right her spirits, just the thing!" she continued. Edward left his wife briefly, to converse quickly with Jamie, and then returned to Anne's side.
"Anne, if you feel it would do Kat some good to spend time in France, than I will agree. But let’s ask her. After all, she is just returned to us and might be against the idea of traveling."
"A holiday away from all this will be just the thing." Anne assured him.
***
Katharine rested a shaking hand against her breasts. She should not have let him touch her.
”I remember how you like it,” he had whispered in her ear. She shivered in the cool air.
She was so easily swayed. He had touched her, kissed her, and she was ready to do anything. She had wanted to lift her fashionable Paris dress up and wrap her legs around his waist. To feel his thick cock deep inside her was all she wanted at the moment. She was weak. So weak, she cursed herself.
She could feel the beads of moisture on her forehead and she almost sobbed.
"Kat?"
She turned and found Jamie there before her.
"Jamie," she answered, breathing a sigh of relief.
"What happened to your hair?" he asked. Her perfectly coiffed hair had been pulled down when Mohammed had touched her.
"It was so heavy," Kat supplied weakly. “I had a headache.”
"I see," he said. "Your father asked that I find you and bring you back to the ballroom."
"Thank you," she replied. She took his arm as they walked back to the house.
"I would still like to announce our betrothal," Jamie said quietly.
Katharine's heart sank. It was all so unfair. Why did Mohammed make her feel this way? Why did she burn for the Arab's touch? Why didn't Jamie ever touch her or at least try? She should not be so wanton with Mohammed when Jamie had been so kind.
Katharine suddenly stopped Jamie on their way to the large house.
"Jamie, kiss me," she said.
Jamie looked down into her luminous blue eyes. "What did you say?" he asked.
"Please, kiss me, before we announce our betrothal," she said.
"Of course, dearest," he said, smiling. He bent his head toward hers and lightly touched his lips to hers. His lips were cool and it ended after a brief meeting of their lips.
Mohammed's dark eyes watched the two lovers kiss in the darkened garden. So the little falcon is at it again, he thought. Whether they are dark Arab men or pale English gentlemen in this cold world, they all flock to her honey, like dogs after a bitch's scent. He seethed.
He remembered so well the night of the banquet, when she had spread her slim legs and moaned as he took her virginity. Did her English lover know that she wasn't a virgin? Did he know that she had lost her virginity on that Arabian evening when her hair had been scented with jasmine? What would he think when he told him she lost it to an Arab Muslim?
Mohammed chuckled. Maybe he should find himself alone with the man and tell him all.
He watched the lovers enter the large ballroom and followed them inside.
"Daughter," Anne came to her daughter's side. She noticed her daughter's hair fallen down her back.