to hit in anger. He only did so to teach his wife a lesson.
Yet how he looked forward to this. A tremendous pressure built within him each time he disciplined a wife, Madeleine, in particular. It was as if God continued to test him by giving Henri such resistant wives time and again. God eased him, though, and brought him a sweet release of peace once the lesson had been taught to his headstrong wife of the moment. Other men might experience guilt over such lessons but serenity filled Henri after such a session.
Henri paused in front of the door, breathing deeply, regaining his poise before he entered. When ready, he slowly turned the knob and walked into the chamber, closing the door quietly behind him.
An empty room awaited him. Lord Ancil’s servants had made the bed and tidied up while he was gone. He crossed to a chair and sat.
Henri waited for half an hour, then an hour. He tried to stay calm, knowing God must be testing his limits. He could not disappoint Him. He cracked his knuckles slowly, the loud crunch the only sound besides his slow, measured breathing. As the time passed, his anger grew. The unruly emotion started in his stomach and slowly rose through his chest until it boiled throughout him. The tic that pulled at the corner of his mouth when Madeleine tried him began twitching.
“Bertrand!”
His manservant opened the door at once.
“Find Lady de Picassaret,” Henri said evenly then sat back to bide his time.
Bertrand returned a quarter of an hour later. “There’s no sign of her ladyship, my lord. I have searched everywhere inside the castle. Mayhap she has gone for a walk or out for a ride?” he suggested hopefully.
Henri slowly shook his head. “She would not do so without asking my permission. Was she at mass, Bertrand?” Oftentimes, Madeleine attended mass, but Henri rarely saw her, so strong was his devotion to His Lord.
“I did not notice her ladyship there, my lord. In fact, I have not seen her all morning.”
“Then find her,” Henri ground out through clenched teeth and Bertrand left to search once again.
When he returned, Henri watched as his valet would not meet his eyes and shifted from foot to foot.
“I have asked everyone, my lord. No one has seen her. My lady did not leave the grounds to walk or ride. She is in no room in this castle.” Bertrand paused a moment and Henri spotted the sweat that had broken out upon his servant’s forehead and above his upper lip.
Suddenly, Henri’s mouth twitched rapidly. He felt his anger building to a frenzy yet he remained in tight control. God would be proud that he held his temper.
He remained seated but eyed Bertrand carefully. “You have more to add?” he asked, his voice calm but deadly.
“Only that late last night one of the guards thought he spied a woman just outside the castle. There was little moonlight and the shadows can play tricks, you know.”
Henri watched the sweat drip off Bertrand’s lip and the servant visibly trembled now.
“And?” Henry prodded, his foot tapping on the stone floor.
“The guard thought he was mistaken, my lord. The shadow was there one moment and gone the next. He decided there was no reason to be alarmed. That it was nothing.”
“Nothing, you say?” Henri stood, his fists clenched, his voice rising. “Nothing? That my wife has left without permission? In the dead of night? In a strange land?”
His anger was white-hot, as if heat seared his flesh. “She has abandoned her husband and her vows?”
Henri rose from his chair, towering over his portly servant. He grabbed Bertrand by the shoulders and drew him close, his forehead resting next to his servant’s.
“I will find her, Bertrand. I will find her. I will make her wish she never set her eyes upon me.”
When Bertrand remained silent, Henri continued. “God wants a wife to submit to her husband,” he explained. “I will have her yield. She will long for death. And then, only then, will I kill her slowly—and take pleasure in it. God would not ask me to remain faithful to a disloyal whore.”
Henri released Bertrand, who staggered back from his master. Satisfied, Henri could see the great fear on his valet’s features. Bertrand had witnessed Henri meting out punishment before and he knew his servant would do anything to keep his master’s wrath from descending upon him.
*
Madeleine arrived on the waterfront in the late afternoon after waiting two days before entering