CHAPTER EIGHTFrom his place of concealment in the trees, Charles watched while the front door of the Lord Lieutenant’s house opened and John emerged with Cliona. A groom had brought his horse around. John took the reins and waited until the man had departed before taking Cliona’s hand and lifting it to his lips.
He kissed the back of her hand, then, before Charles’s furious eyes, turned it over and kissed the palm. Lightning stirred as his rider’s knees tightened involuntarily.
“Steady, boy,” said Charles gently.
Since the morning he had come across John and Cliona in the wood and watched them in secret, he had taken care never to do so again. But today it was essential.
He kept well back until John had galloped past him. Cliona was still there in the doorway, watching the departing fi
