Igniting Darkness (Courting Darkness Duology #2) - Robin LaFevers Page 0,40

knock, I am sitting by the fire, stitching my embroidery. The regent wastes no time with preamble. “What were you doing in Lady Sybella’s room?”

“I hadn’t seen her since the first day she introduced herself and worried she was unwell. The queen has been ill, after all.”

“You went to check on her even after I forbade you to?”

I raise my eyebrows in surprise. “Forbade, Madame? I had thought it was a warning not to socialize with her, not a command to ignore simple Christian courtesy.”

She takes a step closer. “You were dressed as a maidservant.”

I stare at her, wide-eyed. “I have only two gowns, including the one you secured for me. I did not want to risk ruining either of those if she was ill.”

“Only two gowns? I wonder if that is true.” She strides abruptly from me to my travel bag and begins rifling through the contents. I try to tamp down my racing pulse and force myself to watch her calmly. Not finding anything of interest there, she goes to the bed to toss back the covers, then throws aside the pillows. When that yields up nothing, she casts her gimlet gaze on the rest of the room.

“May I ask what you are looking for, Madame? I assure you I have not stolen anything.”

“Only my trust.”

I carefully set the embroidery hoop down in my lap to give her my full attention. “That was never my intent, my lady.”

“Let me make myself clear. You will not associate with Lady Sybella. She has been accused of serious crimes. Crimes that can taint those around them. Crimes that may still lead to a most unpleasant punishment.” Her face softens unexpectedly. “I would not want that for you, Genevieve. Besides, you have a far more important task before you than Sybella’s poor health. The king needs you now more than ever, as there are heavy decisions weighing upon him. Tend to those needs as you have been instructed. As you have promised. Else I will make certain you wish that you had.”

 Chapter 18

Sybella

I wait a quarter hour after the regent leaves, then make my way to the queen. My two guards still follow, but from a greater distance than before. When I slip into the room, Heloise looks up from the posset she is preparing.

I keep my voice low. “How is the queen doing?”

Heloise glances over at the bed. “Not much better.” The cheerful note in her voice is at odds with her words as she takes a pinch of cloves and adds it to the cup.

“Does her illness no longer concern you?” Or is she snubbing me for not doing a better job of fulfilling my duties?

Heloise opens a second small jar and takes another pinch, this time of ginger. “I think I will let her tell you.” She drops the spices into the hot posset, shoves it into my hand with a smile, then shoos me toward the queen.

Unable to make sense of her manner, I feel my hands grow damp, and foreboding settles in my belly. Elsibet is just securing a thick blue velvet shawl around the queen’s shoulders as I reach the bed. The queen’s face is still pale, but there is no clamminess or greenish tinge to it.

With a final plump of the pillow, Elsibet retreats to the window next to Heloise and takes up her stitching.

“Your Majesty.” I curtsy deeply.

As I hand the queen her posset, she says, “Genevieve told me what has happened.”

“About the regent and the Bishop of Albi working together?”

“Yes.” She sips her posset. “But also about the accusation being made against you.”

I grimace. “I am sor—”

“I believe I have ordered you not to apologize for such things before, and you dare not disobey a direct order from your sovereign.”

Her words fill me with both warmth and humor, removing some of the chill that had beset me. “But of course. I dare not.”

She lowers her voice. “So did you kill him?”

As I look into the queen’s sweet young face, I am filled with despair. No matter how hard I try to break free of this darkness, it always pulls me back. “Yes. Pierre sent him to kill me.”

The queen settles back against her pillows. “I thought as much. That’s why I didn’t ask you before the trial—in case they called me to testify.”

Clever queen! “You don’t seem perturbed by it at all.”

“Perturbed? No! I am glad that you have the skills and the strength that allow you to survive. That allow us all