The Shattered Rose Page 0,122

deserves to suffer for her sins."

"Is that not a matter for her husband and the king? It seems to me that the bishop exceeds his powers."

FitzRoger studied him for a moment, clearly considering all the implications. Raoul hoped he didn't ask just how he knew all this.

"I will at the least halt the discipline. Thank you for alerting me, Sieur Raoul." With that, he turned and headed off toward the convent at reasonable speed. Raoul hurried toward Westminster, hoping FitzRoger would be in time.

As he entered the area near Westminster Hall, he heard city bells announcing terce and tried to estimate whether there had been time enough or not.

Then he put it out of his mind. It was beyond further action. The important thing now was to decide how to fulfill his promise to Jehanne. How to make her suffering worthwhile.

* * * * * As she waited for terce, Jehanne wondered at herself. Perhaps Raoul could have found a way to take her out of here, away from pain. Away from the degradation of pain. That's what she hated most - that her traitorous body would tremble and flinch, weep and cry out, when she wanted to be stoic.

But an attempt to take her with him might have jeopardized his own escape, and then he wouldn't have been able to take her words to the hearing. That was what really mattered. The hearing that would settle Donata's future, and perhaps that of Galeran and Raymond too.

And she did deserve punishment.

She kept telling herself that.

She just had not expected it to hurt so much.

Sister Martha, anxious sympathy in her eyes, brought Donata to be fed, and Jehanne had a little time of peace concentrating on her baby. Surely after the bishop had overstepped himself by ordering her beatings, the king would not support his ruling and tear her baby from her arms?

But what of the rest of it, she wondered, trying to smile for the baby even as worries whirled through her mind and pain stabbed with every movement. What if it came to swords? If Galeran died, she could not bear it. If Raymond died, though, she could never rid herself of the guilt.

He'd protested quite firmly when she'd gone to him, tearing off her clothes.

Was it possible for a woman to rape a man, for she felt as if that was what she had done, even if he'd enjoyed it in the end.

"She'd been mad with grief, of course, but did that excuse such sins?

Almost, when Sister Martha came to take Donata, and the mother superior came with her rod, she welcomed it.

Almost.

Jehanne's protesting body immediately began to tremble.

Chapter 19

Two other nuns accompanied the mother superior, for they had found last time that her body would no longer remain still under the pain. The sisters gripped her arms and turned her, pressing her down to her knees.

"May the Lord forgive his wretched sinner."

Jehanne managed to keep her voice steady as she said, "Amen."

But at the first cut, she screamed and struggled to escape the agony.

Before the third stroke she heard voices. Her only thought was that somehow the interruption had stopped more pain.

A commanding male voice. Galeran? No.

The mother superior, protesting. Arguing.

Then the controlling hands of the two nuns left her arms.

What was happening?

She could hardly hear for shaking, but thought she heard the king mentioned. Was she summoned to the hearing after all?

When she could, she pushed shakily to her feet and turned, still holding on to the prie-dieu for balance.

The mother superior stood by the door, tight-lipped and furious. "The king has sent to halt your penance until after the hearing, Lady Jehanne. I wonder how he discovered it. I will return, however, when it is proper to do so."

She stalked out, but the two other nuns remained. Jehanne realized why when a tall stranger entered. Dark-haired, about her own age, but with an aura of power worthy of the king himself.

"I am FitzRoger, servant to King Henry."

A great deal more than that, Jehanne thought, trying desperately to think straight. She must be ready for whatever twist of fortune was before her.

His clever eyes took her in from head to toe, seeing, she feared, more than she would wish. "Perhaps you should sit, Lady Jehanne."

She'd like to stand straight and dismiss the offer, but she fumbled back onto the plain bench, wishing it weren't so obvious that her legs were shaking.

"I've been whipped a time or two," he remarked. "The body objects even though we