Page 151 of Laird of Smoke
“Long enough,” she told him cryptically.
She popped a large wad of salat into her mouth and instantly choked on the strong verjuice.
As she started coughing, Adam clapped her on the back, which didn’t help at all.
She slapped his hand away and stole his cup of hard cider to wash down the sour dressing.
“Are ye all right, Sister?”the abbess asked in concern.
“Fine, Reverend Mother,” Eve lied.
Her eyes were watering, her throat burned, and her nerves were stretched to the limit over this awkward interaction with Adam.The last thing she wanted was to draw attention to their skirmish.
Adam’s hand tightened on his eating knife as he stared at the slice of roast on his trencher.“Did ye speak to anyone besides the laird?”he muttered.
“Oh aye,” she revealed with a measure of admittedly unhealthy satisfaction.“I spoke to a lovely lass named Isabel.Perhaps ye’ve met her.”
Of course he’d met her.She was his cousin.
“The name sounds familiar,” he hedged, smiling for the abbess, who’d taken a sudden interest in their conversation.
“She seems to know everythin’ about everyone,” Eve told him.
He turned as pale as the parsnips.
The novice returned to refill both their cups.They simultaneously took bracing gulps of cider.
After a moment, Adam murmured, “So ye know.”
“What?”she whispered back at him.“That ye’re a Rivenloch?”
Startled at her mention of his name, he let his knife slip, sending the roast slice out of the trencher and into her lap with a plop.
She squeaked in surprise and came to her feet.
The abbess scowled at her.“Sister Eve!Sit down.Behave yourself.”
Eve blushed.She didn’t bother explaining what had happened.But she made a particularly fierce glare at Adam.
And in an unladylike fit of revenge, she surreptitiously pushed the neeps to the edge of her trencher and flipped them into his lap.
He made a loud gasp that stopped the conversation around him.
“Is somethin’ amiss?”the abbess asked.
“Nay, Reverend Mother,” he said.“The neeps are just so delicious.”
The abbess smiled.She didn’t see the evil glint that appeared in his eyes when she looked away.
But Eve did.So she was only half-surprised when he subtly scooped a piece of wine-soaked pear into his palm and applied it under the table to Eve’s thigh, mashing it against her habit for good measure.
She gritted her teeth, eyeing the weapons at her disposal.
She’d eaten half of her apple and onion coffyn.So she picked it up.Gazing off nonchalantly toward the far table, she turned it upside down and let the filling slowly drip down his shoulder.
“Ah!”he cried, jumping up as the slimy mess made its way down his sleeve.
Everyone in the Refectory froze.
