Igniting Darkness (Courting Darkness Duology #2) - Robin LaFevers Page 0,51

am not dead or even ill.”

“But you have been—”

“No, my lord husband. I am not ill. I am pregnant.” Her hands drift to her belly, not yet round. “I carry the future dauphin of France, and like many women before me, suffer only from pregnancy sickness.”

This time, the king looks as if he has taken a jousting lance to his gut. Pleasure, pride, and disbelief battle for dominance on his face.

The queen ventures a step closer. “Are you not pleased, my lord?” she asks in a small voice.

The scowl clears, and he tentatively takes her hand. “I am most pleased that God has granted us such an early blessing. I only wish to have received such news under happier circumstances.”

“But what could be happier than a baby, Your Majesty?”

“Nothing, my lady. I only wish that the joy be untainted by politics.”

“It is for me.”

His face grows serious. “This is even more reason to have only the most trustworthy companions around you right now. There are two lives whose protection are of paramount importance to me.”

I am glad at least he included the queen in his magnanimous sweep of protection.

With her delicate stature, pale complexion, and enormous brown eyes liquid with emotion, she is the very picture of wifely perfection. She grips his hand, then bends to kiss it, before standing once more. “That is what I’ve been trying to tell you, my lord. It is only because of Lady Sybella that I am not wretchedly ill all the time. It is her skill with herbs and tinctures that allows me to take any nourishment at all for the babe, else I would have lost it by now.”

My hand on the pestle tightens, impressed at how easily the small lie slides off her tongue.

The king’s head rears back. “Truly?”

“Truly, my lord. As I told you earlier, she has attended to me since before dinnertime yesterday. It was only when she went to her room for supplies this morning that she learned about Monsieur Fremin. She had just returned to tell me the news herself and to fix my morning tincture.”

The king squeezes her hand. “Very well. I will speak with her before I make any judgments.”

“Thank you, my lord.”

“Now.” He gestures to Heloise and Elsibet, who have been waiting silently all this time. Fortunately, enough time has passed that they are no longer gaping. “Let’s have your women get you back to bed. It would not do to take a chill.”

As Heloise and Elsibet help her into bed, the king comes to where I am grinding herbs with the pestle. He peers down into the mortar. “What is that?”

“Naught but chamomile, my lord.”

“And what will you do with it?”

“Add it to a goblet of heated wine, along with some spices, including ginger, which shall calm the queen’s stomach.” I look up and meet his gaze for the first time. “I would be happy to take a sip while you watch.”

“That is not necessary.” He lowers his voice so that it will not carry across the room. “But know this. In spite of my lady wife’s words, I cannot help but feel you are involved in Fremin’s death in some way.”

“Only as a victim, Your Majesty.” I hold his gaze a moment longer before returning my attention to my work. “I heard a rumor that the lawyer carried a length of rope on him. Is not the simplest explanation the most likely? He meant to abduct me like he did my sisters.”

“Abduct an assassin?” His voice is incredulous.

“The lawyer—indeed, my brother—did not know that it was the convent of Saint Mortain that I was sent to. Only that I was convent trained.”

The king is quiet, observing my every movement like a hawk watches the grass next to a rabbit warren. “I do not trust your theology any more than I trust you. When she is in a less vulnerable state—”

It is all I can do not to scoff. She just lied to him as coolly as any assassin and played him like a minstrel does his mandolin.

“—​I intend to remove you from the queen’s circle.”

His words settle over me like a noose. Perhaps that is what makes me so bold. I look up from my work. “Do you dare?” I ask softly. “Are you so certain that you and your bishops know better than the Church itself? What if it is due to honoring the Nine that she is with child so quickly? What if I am the only reason this babe