Page 15 of Retribution

But there was one woman in particular.

Aidric wasn’t sure why this woman caught his attention other than the fact that she was looking right at him with vibrant blue eyes that he could see from all the way across the room. Brilliant, unnatural blue that blazed like a hot summer sky. It took him a moment to realize that the reason she caught his attention, other than those eyes, was the fact that she seemed to glow. She had long blonde hair, so blonde that it was white. That glistening, pearl-like color that babies sometimes had, a color that darkened with age. But not this woman.

She was positively incandescent.

She wasn’t particularly small, or short, but rather taller than the average woman with a deliciously round figure. While her hair was white and her eyes a brilliant blue, her eyebrows and eyelashes were a sort of soft brown in color. He could see them. She had an oval-shaped face, with prominent cheekbones, and the color of the dress she wore was a shimmering cross between gold and silver, elaborately embroidered. It made her look like an angel on earth, as if something ethereal and spirit-like had stepped through the veil between worlds and onto this earth.

He’d never seen anything so beautiful in his entire life.

“Aidric?”

Someone was calling his name, jolting him from the trance he seemed to be in. “Eh?” he said, startled as he looked toward the source of the sound. “What is it?”

Britt was grinning at him. “Now you hear me, do you?” he said. “I spoke your name three times. Were you not aware?”

Aidric was swiftly coming to realize he was about to make a fool out of himself and struggled to cover his blunder. “Apparently not,” he said, his gaze inevitably moving back to the brilliant vision that had captivated his attention. “That woman… I thought I had seen her before and was trying to recall where.”

A lie, but it was better than looking like an idiot. Britt, too, turned to see what had Aidric’s attention, though he’d already seen her. He had the moment they’d entered the business, though it was Aidric who seemed captivated by her.

“You do not know her,” he said, giving Aidric a push in the opposite direction.

But Aidric wouldn’t be so easily pushed. “How do you know?” he said. “Have you ever seen her before?”

“Of course not,” Britt said, still pushing. “Focus, man. We must finish your business and get back to Westminster.”

As Aidric and Britt hissed at each other, heading toward a woman who worked at the establishment, Dirk and Bennet hung back, both of them looking at the white-haired lady, who had been ushered away by her maid. They could still see the back of her white head at the far end of the room, however, now looking at some fabric while another woman tried very hard to sell it to her.

It was Dirk who seemed the most interested in her.

“Do you know who I think that is?” he finally said.

Bennet wasn’t much interested in looking at other women given that he was happily married, so he was only marginally interested in Dirk’s question.

“Nay,” he said. “Who?”

Dirk glanced around the chamber without moving his head, his eyes darting about. “Look around,” he said. “There is no Archbishop of Cambridge here even though his escort is outside.”

“So? And?”

“And I think that woman is with Cambridge,” Dirk said. “I mean that she came with his escort. I would be willing to bet that is the Pearl we’ve been speaking of.”

That had Bennet’s mild interest. “Oh?” he said. “Are you certain?”

“Fairly certain.”

“I’ve never seen a Jewel of London.”

Dirk could still see the back of the woman’s white head. “Nor I,” he said. “But now you have. You can just tell by looking at her that she is no ordinary woman. She glows like the full moon on a cloudless night.”

Bennet’s gaze lingered on the woman in the distance for a few seconds longer before he turned away. “I feel pity for women like that,” he said, finding interest in a display of silk in front of him. “They are beautiful women, but they are kept like pets.”

Dirk shrugged. “That is the life of a courtesan,” he said. “It has been that way since the beginning of time. There were courtesans with the Greeks and the Romans.”

“True,” Bennet said. “But I like to think we are more civilized than they were. A man should not keep a woman as a prize. It is cruel.”

Dirk grinned. “Ever the chivalrous man, Cheppy,” he said, calling him by his nickname. “You are a champion of women.”

Bennet snorted softly. “I should be,” he said. “I have three daughters. I should not like for any one of them to be made a courtesan.”