A Peek at VIRGIN'S SPY

Just 13 days until THE VIRGIN'S SPY joins THE VIRGIN'S DAUGHTER in the wild!! For all my very kind readers who have made these last few months bright in times of trouble, enjoy this teaser scene between Anabel and Kit :)

     Anne Isabella, Princess of Wales, had learned from her earliest years that she could nearly always get her way. Not many people had the power to say no to the daughter of two reigning monarchs, and so nineteen-year-old Anabel, when she was being particularly honest with herself, admitted that she was a bit spoiled.

     The trouble was, one only tended to realize that when one didn’t get one’s way. As now, with Kit Courtenay staring her down in refusal.

     “What do you mean ‘no’?” she demanded. “I have appointed you my Master of Horse. It wasn’t a request.”

     “Unless you mean me to operate in chains, than I am telling you that I very kindly decline the appointment.”

     “What is wrong with you, Kit? You’ve been irritable and difficult for months.”

     “Because I have a mind of my own and a wish to do more with my life than follow you around and offer you compliments? ‘How lovely you are today, Your Highness,”” he said in deadly mimicry of court sycophants. “‘The very image of your royal mother, but is that a touch of Spanish flair in your dress?’”

     Anabel’s temper went from raging to white-hot in a moment. In a chilly tone reminiscent of her father’s Spanish hauteur, she said, “Long acquaintance does not give you the right to insult me to my face.”

     Most unusually, Kit did not immediately respond. Anabel was used to his ready tongue and the quick wits that could spin any conversation a dozen dizzying directions without warning. But in the last months, his irritability had been accompanied by these bouts of reflection before speech.

     Kit did not apologize; she had not expected him to. But he offered something of an explanation. “I am growing older, just as you are. I do not have a throne waiting for me, nor even a title. Stephen inherits my father’s riches. I must make my own path. And I would prefer to do it without undue favoritism.”

     “And what of due favoritism? Do you expect me to appoint strangers to serve in my household?”

     “I am not insensible of the great honour, Your Highness. But I have made other plans. The Earl of Leicester is bound for Dublin and has appointed me his secretary. I leave for Ireland in two weeks.”

     “You’re going to Ireland with Brandon Dudley? To be a secretary?” Anabel laughed in disbelief. “Why not at least go as part of Stephen’s forces?”

     “If I’m not going to accept your favours, Anabel, I’m hardly likely to go begging to my brother.”

     That at least sounded like the Kit she had always known—irreverent and occasionally insolent. Although Anabel was as close to the Courtenay children as anyone, the princess occasionally studied relationships as an outsider and wondered if the pleasures of siblings outweighed the resentments.

     “I don’t suppose there’s any chance you would reconsider?” There was a wistfulness to her plea she had not expected.

      His quick, rueful grin was answer in itself. “You’ll be happier with someone more biddable, Your Highness. You and I should only spend our days arguing.”
But those are the best parts of my days, Anabel thought forlornly. Arguing with you.