The Shattered Rose Page 0,50

Locked away? Burned at the stake? Do you want me to throttle this child . . . ?" He bit off the increasingly violent words. "Don't, Jehanne. Don't push me. Let's handle the simple problems first. Was Lowick with the monks?"

"No," she said, distinctly pale. "Didn't you speak to Forthred at all?"

"No."

"Had he left?"

"I don't know. I never returned to Heywood. I heard you had come this way and followed."

She looked him over as if seeing him for the first time. "Why are you so bloody?"

There was no place in this for lies. "Someone tried to kill me."

She sat on a bench with a thump. "What? "

"Yesterday. On the road between Heywood and Burstock, when you appeared to be fleeing me,"

"What?"

Galeran's heart eased. Jehanne was clever, but she was not capable of faking such deep confusion.

"Do you mean you were the horsemen pursuing us?" she asked. "I thought it was the bishop's men!"

"Pity you didn't have anyone with Raoul's sharp sight."

"It wouldn't have mattered. We weren't about to stop and study matters. We just rode here as fast as the horses could bear. But," she asked painfully, "what is this about someone trying to kill you?"

The action of rocking the babe was strangely soothing. "There was a man on the road with two crossbows and the plain intent to kill me."

She paled. Distinctly, she paled. "Sweet Savior! Where is he now?"

"Under the earth."

"Praise be!" Then she frowned again. "It might have been better, though, to preserve him for questioning."

"I wasn't thinking very clearly. But if we knew who was behind it, it might carry us into deep water."

"Raymond," she whispered.

"I can't imagine who else wants me dead."

"Sweet Mary, help us. I can hardly believe it! He is not a bad man."

Something of Galeran's feelings must have shown on his face, for she added, "He isn't, Galeran. You must know that."

"He tried to have me killed, Jehanne."

She closed her eyes. "Desperate," she sighed "He isn't a saint, either." Then she studied him again. "Was there only one man? You seem to be wearing a great deal of blood."

"There's a great deal of blood in a man." A lightning-flash vision of blood pouring through the streets of Jerusalem made him shudder, and then he saw blood on the babe's white blanket.

After a heart-stopping moment, he realized it had merely rubbed off his gory mail when he'd held her. He rose, suddenly aware of his own stench.

"My rage broke free, Jehanne. I didn't just kill the man, I butchered him.

Walk carefully around me. Please."

* * * * * Outside in the hall, Raoul saw Aline leave the room, then turn to study the closed door. He could not see her face, but her whole body expressed concern. Her short, compact, well-rounded body was extremely expressive.

He suspected it would be expressive in bed. . . .

How strange to think that way about the little nun.

He strolled over to her. "Lady Aline. You are troubled?"

She swung sharply. "There are matters enough to trouble anyone who has a mind above base pleasures." Her eyes flicked down to his crotch, and then she turned pink.

Raoul began to think the Lady Aline was mistaken in her vocation to a life of chastity. "Are there? Perhaps you could sit on this bench and explain these matters to me."

She stepped back. "Do you take me for a fool, sir? You know perfectly well what is going on."

She would have walked past him, but he caught her wrist. The way she froze, the way her color deepened told him she was rarely touched by men.

It intrigued him. She tried to snatch her hand away, but he had her shackled just tightly enough to prevent it.

"Sirrah!"

"I do not know what is going on, Lady Aline, and I think I should."

She looked him in the eye searchingly, clear-headed despite her fluster.

"How can you not?"

"Because for three days we've ridden around the estate and received no messages. And before we could return to Heywood we were told that Lady Jehanne had come here, so we followed. Your father seems to have told Galeran some interesting things, but since they spoke quietly, I am left in ignorance. Pity me."

Judging his moment, he released her. She pulled her hand close to her body and rubbed her wrist even though he knew he had not hurt her.

"Very well." She walked briskly over to a bench, her firm, purposeful step having the unaccountable effect of making Raoul want to kiss her into limp dazedness.

He shook his head and

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