“There is nothing you can say that will make a damned bit of difference to me,” he said. “I am done with you.”
She started to speak again, but he had already turned away.
Chapter Twenty-seven
“The queen will meet you again tonight.” Linnet’s eyes followed Jamie crossing the hall with Agnes Stafford as she spoke to Owen. Agnes’s hand was tucked into Jamie’s arm.
“How?” Owen asked.
“What?”
“How will Katherine get away and where shall I meet her?”
“Half an hour after supper, I will cross the upper ward wearing her ermine-trimmed cape and hood, with her ladies in tow.” Linnet tried to concentrate, but it was hard with Jamie and that woman in the same room. “At the same time, the queen will slip out the side door in my cape to meet you at the place in the wood.”
“Who knew love would prove so difficult?” Owen said with a sigh. “You do us a great favor by the risks you take on our behalf. I wish I could do the same for you.”
“Jamie stays at Agnes’s side like a dutiful dog,” she said. “Is this farce meant to teach me a lesson?”
Owen shrugged. “Jamie says he intends to wed her.”
“He could not be that foolish.” Truly, he could not. “They would hate each other inside a month.”
“Jamie says the lady’s religious devotion is sure to make her a good and faithful wife.”
“A good and faithful wife,” she snapped. She folded her arms and glared at the two of them. “No mortal man would tempt Agnes, that is for certain.”
It made her so angry to see him parading around the hall with the paradigm of virtue. He meant it as a slap in her face, and she felt the sting.
“What Jamie says is certain,” Owen said, “is that he will always know where Agnes is.”
Linnet tapped her foot furiously. “And that is enough for him?”
“So he says. I pray he comes to his senses before it is too late.”
Linnet swallowed back the tears that threatened to break through her anger.
“Surely you are not going to let him make this disastrous mistake?” Owen said, nudging her with his elbow. “If you do not save the fool from his own poor judgment, you will both regret it.”
“He is not ready to listen to me yet.”
“Ready or nay, you have no more time. He intends to leave Windsor on the morrow.”
Owen was right. If she was going to win him back, she could delay no longer.
“I believe Jamie would sacrifice anything for you,” Owen said, turning serious, “if he could be sure of you.”
“I fear it is too late. I’ve hurt his pride twice, and he’ll not forgive me that.”
“ ’Tis unlike you to give up so easily,” Owen said. “You are usually like a terrier.”
She squeezed Owen’s arm. “Wish me well.”
Jamie might pretend he was not aware of her presence, but she knew better. As soon as she started toward him across the vast hall, his eyes were on her. His expression was hard, but he looked at no one else.
A few men tried to halt her progress, but she brushed past with a smile and a nod, set on her mission. When she reached Jamie’s group, she stepped into the circle beside him and proceeded to greet each person.
“Sir Frederick,” she said, nodding to the handsome man on her other side who wore a forest-green tunic and matching liripipe hat. “That is an exquisite velvet.”