Shipment? Adrienne wondered frantically. Shipment of what? She backed soundlessly away from the door.

Stupid. Gullible. Innocent. What was so bad about being innocent? she wondered as she slunk through the darkened house, swallowing her sobs. At least there was honor in innocence. At least she never hurt anyone, never used anyone. So maybe she was a tad … gullible. Maybe she even lacked a bit of common sense. But she more than made up for it in other departments. She had a good heart. That should count for something.

Her throat tightened with suppressed tears. Stop it, she chided herself. Focus. Find the queen. Get back home. They don’t make men like the Hawk in the twentieth century, and after the Hawk no man would ever be a temptation again.

The gatehouse loomed before her. Why hadn’t they stopped her? She knew they were still there. Maybe he wanted them to let her go. Maybe she’d been so naive and unschooled that he really wasn’t interested at all. After all, a man like that certainly wouldn’t have a hard time finding a willing woman.

What would the king’s whore care? There would always be another woman.

She kicked angrily at a pebble and watched it skitter into the wall of the gatehouse. Would they pull up the portcullis and draw back the sally port for her? Roll out the red carpet to celebrate her leave-taking?

And as she stepped into the archway, Grimm melted out of the shadows.

She stopped, relieved.

Try that again, she told herself. Write that scene one more time, Adrienne de Simone. It reads, “she stopped, furious at being denied escape.”

No, definitely relieved.

She sighed, her shoulders drooping. “Grimm. Let me pass. It’s my life. Move.”

He shook his head. “Sorry, milady.”

“Grimm, I must go back to the Comyn keep.”

“Why?”

She studied him a moment in the breaking light. He looked truly confused, and his eyes kept scanning the northern bailey, as if he was expecting someone. “Because I’m homesick,” she lied. Well, perhaps not exactly a lie—she did miss Moonie terribly.

“Ah!” Understanding dawned in his handsome features. He stood before her, his legs apart, muscular arms folded across his chest. “Are you looking for something?”

“What?” He couldn’t know! Could he? “Grimm, did Lady Comyn—I mean my mother—say anything about … well … anything of mine that I might have left there … at home?”

“Like what?” Grimm asked, the veritable picture of innocence.

“Yes, like what?” echoed a voice behind her. Something in his voice had decidedly changed and for the worse. The Hawk’s velvet purr had taken on the coldness of smooth, polished steel.

Was she responsible for that change?

“Take her to the Peacock Room. Lock the door and bring me the key, Grimm.”

“No!” she cried, spinning around to face him. “I must go! I want to go to the Comyn keep!”

“What seek you, wife?” he asked icily.

Mute, she stared at him defiantly.

Hawk muttered a dark curse. Could it be true? Could she truly be from the future and looking for the way back home? The thought that she might leave him for Adam had made him near crazed.

But, he brooded darkly, if it was the black queen she was seeking, then she was most definitely doing it for a reason. Odds were she was from somewhere else if not some when else, and she thought the black queen could take her away from him.

One way to find out, he decided.

“Is it this you’re after, lass?” he asked as he withdrew the chess piece from his sporran and raised it before her widening eyes.

CHAPTER 18

“COME, LASS.” THE COMMAND WAS TONELESS AND UNMISTAKABLY dangerous. And even now, the mere word made her shiver with desire. The flush of heat stole her breath. “Hawk—”

“Don’t.” The word was a warning. “Now. Take my hand.”

What was he going to do? she wondered frantically. Behind her, she felt Grimm step closer, edging her toward the Hawk.

“Wait!” She held out a hand to ward him off.

“Move, milady,” Grimm said softly.

“Don’t lock me in a room!”

“How could I not?” Hawk sneered. “Knowing that you would go back to a place where it seems you knew little joy—yet you would rather be there than here with me!”

“You don’t believe I’m from the future!” she gasped.

“I’m beginning to,” he muttered. “How do you think I knew about this?” The black queen glittered in his hand.