A Kiss in the Night by Jennifer Horsman Read Free Book Online

huge body cradled against hers, his lips on her neck, the hot pleasure of his flesh in her womb.
    Oh Lord, how love burns bright and hot!
    His name was seared upon her soul, a treasure to keep and cherish and—
    "Ouch!" She lifted her foot, where she felt the sharpness of a pebble. She looked down at her bare feet with dismay. She did not even have shoes now let alone shelter or food. She gathered up her unruly hair, twisting it into an unattractive knot at the nape of her neck. Paris beggars had better rags than she! Ash and dirt were smudged across her legs and arms, and no doubt her face. The late summer days were still warm, but winter would sweep upon the land soon enough.
    And dear Mary, if she was with child, whatever would she do? How could she even present herself in a township looking like this? Perhaps if she bathed and combed through her hair and if she found a shawl, just a shawl...
    Lost to an unpleasant contemplation of her uncertain fate, she didn't notice the slain bodies at first. She was staring at a fast-moving river, its murmur of running water sounding a pleasant backdrop to the quiet of the forest. The name of the river started with a G, she knew, and it went through the rich vineyards south of here and all the way to the sea. She had to cross this river to the other side, where the road to the Midi lay less than a mile to the north.
    The other side.
    She first spotted a horse, his great head lowered as he picked at the grass. Behind a cluster of trees, she saw a coach. Her silver eyes darted back and forth until she began to make out the bodies Five no, six men and, dear God, yes, a lady!
    A slain woman lay on the mossy bank, her green, rich-looking traveling clothes spread in a fan over the brighter moss. Her caul rested several feet away, pointing like a sundial to the sky.
    Linness rushed to the water's edge as she called across, "Be anyone still alive? Please to God, answer! Be anyone still alive?"
    A chill shot down her spine as she waded in the cold water. It reached her waist and she plunged into its depth. Strong, sure strokes carried her to the opposite side, slightly upstream. Dripping wet, she rushed upon the lady.
    A very young lady—she could not be much more than her own ten and five years. A puddle of blood covered her chest. She was deathly pale and frigid…cold. With a startled gasp, Linness saw the girl was quite dead. The devils who killed her had chopped off her fingers to get at her jewels.
    "Oh, you poor, poor child
    She rushed to a knight and caught her scream when she saw he was decapitated, She slowly approached another to see the same. Within minutes she saw they were all quite dead, mutilated, left for the night creatures to pick at. For a long moment she stared in shock at the gruesome sight, then shut her eyes tight, willing the bile in her throat down and down.
    She backed away and fled into the forest. She ran until her lungs burned and her legs gave way. She dropped to her knees on the leaf-covered ground beneath the canopy of trees and with all the fierceness of her faith, she began to pray
    She prayed for their souls' salvation.
    Those poor, poor people.
    Minutes passed, collecting into an hour, and still she prayed. But hunger acts upon meditation, and taken with her exhaustion, the cataclysmic events she had just lived through, made her slip into a deep, dreamlike state. The forest teemed with nesting birds, rabbits' cautious gazes and prickling whiskers, the silent hooves of deer, the sly scurry of a hedgehog, the rustle of leaves and the shifting of light, and all of it faded in front of her. The prayerful meditation produced a miraculous calm that settled over her weary heart. The horror disappeared. She had been given grace in understanding that each member of the slain party, indeed all of life, was received by God in heaven and granted eternal peace. God's unmerited mercy over man kind...
    She didn't see Mary as much as feel her presence. The question formed