“My lady?”
When I look up, Tephanie is holding out my chamber robe. “Shall I help you undress?”
“If you please.”
Her hands are gentle as she helps me out of my clothes. Unlike Jamette, she knows how to keep silent, and I find the quiet of her company soothing. As she puts away my gown, I take the cup of wine over to my small jeweled casket and open it. After setting the goblet down, I remove a small crystal vial from the box. It is a sleeping draft Sister Serafina gave me as a parting gift when I left the convent. She did not say so, but I could see she was unhappy with the abbess for sending me out so soon and knew I would need help if I were to sleep at all.
For a brief moment, I consider dumping the entire contents into my wine. If I drink all of it, I will never wake up. The thought of going to sleep and never having to deal with d’Albret or the abbess or Julian again is as seductive as a siren’s song.
But what if Death rejects me once more? Then I will be forced to lie, weak and vulnerable, at the mercy of others while I recover. A most terrifying thought.
Besides, what if the knight truly is alive—what will become of him if I am dead? I slip two drops into my wine, return the vial to the box, and lock it.
Even more important, if I am dead, who will kill d’Albret? For he must die, marque or no.
Tephanie has finished warming the bed and comes to unpin my hair. She begins combing it out with a surprisingly light touch, given how clumsy and awkward she is. I close my eyes and let the gentle strokes calm some of the fear from me. Her ministrations remind me of how Ismae and Annith and I used to take turns combing and dressing one another’s hair at the convent. Sweet Mortain, how I miss them.
Abruptly, I turn around. “You will sleep in here tonight,” I tell her.
She stops what she is doing and looks at me in surprise. “My lady?”
I cannot tell her that I need her, that I wish her company, so instead I say, “I am not feeling well and may require someone to attend me during the night.”
She looks stunned, but pleased. The ninny thinks this is some great honor, not the desperate act of a coward, and I do not disabuse her of that notion.
That night, when Julian comes scratching at my door, Tephanie gets up to see who it is. I do not hear what she says, as my head is groggy from Sister Serafina’s potion, but her presence is enough to drive him away. She returns to the bed and crawls back under the covers. “Your brother wished to see how you were doing. He said you had a headache at dinner and he wanted to be sure it was gone.”
“It is,” I say, and scoot over so she may have the warmest spot. She deserves that much, at least, for chasing off the monsters.
Chapter Eight
WHEN I COME AWAKE IN the morning, my first thought is of the knight the abbess wishes me to free. His anguished bellow of defeat as he was struck down haunted my dreams.
Even at the convent, we had heard of the mighty Beast of Waroch and of how his ability to rally his countrymen—noblemen and peasant alike—to the duke’s cause allowed us to win our past three battles.
As I listen to Tephanie’s gentle snoring, I wonder why the fallen knight has so captured my imagination. Was it because he fought so valiantly against such overwhelming odds? Because of his dedication to his young duchess? Or simply because I looked into his eyes just before he died?
For he is dead. I saw him struck down with my own . . . ah, but Julian arrived just then. I never saw the knight’s lifeless body. And it is said that men in the throes of battle lust can suffer much damage, yet live.
When I went to bed last night, I vowed to ignore the abbess’s message. But now, now all I can think of is that noble knight rotting—or worse—in d’Albret’s dungeon.
I place one of my cold feet on Tephanie and she stirs at last—the great slug. She blinks twice to clear the confusion from her eyes, then remembers where she is and with whom. “My lady! I beg your forgiveness. I have overslept.”
“Did you know that you snore?” I say, amused at the bright spots of red that stain her cheeks.
She looks away. “I am sorry—you should have shoved me from the bed or awakened me in some fashion.”
“I did not say it disturbed me, only that you did it.”
She does not know what to say to this, so she leaps out of bed, curtsies, then hurries to fetch my chamber robe.
Just as she is about to help me into it, Jamette enters the room babbling like a brook. “Barons Vienne and Julliers were found dead in their chambers this morning—” Her mouth snaps shut when she finds us standing together in nothing but our shifts.
She blinks, her mouth opening then closing as she searches for something to say. Because she annoys me so very much, I reach out, place a finger under Tephanie’s chin, and turn her head gently toward me. “Thank you, Tephanie,” I say. “For everything.” Tephanie’s cheeks turn a dull red, and I almost laugh and spoil the effect I have so carefully created.
Poor Jamette cannot decide if she is shocked or jealous. “So, who are these barons whose chambers you visited last night?” I ask languorously.
“Not me,” she snaps. “It was the servants who reported they died of the plague in their sleep.”
“Could you bring the water? I’d like to wash now,” I say with a sleepy yawn.
“Do you think we will catch it?” Tephanie asks. “The plague, I mean?”
The look Jamette sends Tephanie is so full of venom I am surprised the other girl does not wilt on the spot. She does look acutely embarrassed, however, and hurries away to finish dressing in the privacy of the garderobe.
Jamette’s temper makes her careless, and she splashes water everywhere. “Watch what you are doing,” I warn her. “Else I will have you clean it up with that sharp tongue of yours.”
Our eyes meet, and I can see all the insults and accusations she wishes to hurl at me. Instead of saying them, she mutters to herself, “At least now I know why she ignores the few men who cast their attention her way.”
I run my finger along Jamette’s arm. “Do not tell me you are jealous, little one?” I have found an entirely new way to get under Jamette’s skin and anticipate hours of fine sport.
She pulls her arm away. “Of course not!” She turns and moves across the room to the clothespress. “Which gown do you want today?”
“The dark gray satin with the black underskirt.”
She helps me dress, but her movements are stiff, and she touches me as little as possible. When she laces up my bodice, she pulls so hard she nearly cracks my ribs.
I jerk away and grab her hand. “Careful. Your duties are to attend me, not cause me bodily damage.”
She glares at me, and I can feel her temper humming in her veins. Tephanie chooses that moment to come stumbling back into the room, slipping her belt into place and affixing to it the small knife I gave her.
“Enough of this,” I say. “I have in mind something more entertaining for us this morning.” D’Albret and most of the garrison plan to go to Ancenis today to take back Marshal Rieux’s holding from the French. Which means it is a perfect day for ferreting out secrets. “Where did you say the sounds of ghosts were coming from? I would like to hear them for myself.”
For while ghosts do not make noise, prisoners do.
It turns out that the ghosts are rumored to haunt the old tower, the very place from which I watched the battle. It is also the most logical place to keep a prisoner, since it is well away from the living quarters and the high-traffic areas of the castle.