Hot Summer's Knight by Jennie Reid Read Free Book Online Page A

father, whose only wish had been to see her and the valley safe.  She’d taken care of things for many years, and she’d foolishly imagined things wouldn’t change very much once he’d gone.
    Her marriage had seemed the ideal solution.  While she declared herself to be still wed, she couldn’t be given to any other man.  The idea had seemed so perfect – the romantic ideal of the young wife, eternally waiting for the return of her beloved husband.
    Except it was all a lie.  She’d detested her husband from the moment he’d collapsed in a drunken stupor at her feet, and a week of courtship and five weeks of marriage hadn’t improved her opinion of him.
    She hadn’t wanted to marry at all.  After Odo had entered the monastery, and Denis had drowned in the river, all she’d wanted was to quietly rule the valley, as her father had done, and his father before him.  Since her father’s death, she’d managed well enough, despite being a woman.
    Until yesterday.  Esme was right; we never know what lies in wait around the next corner.
    Tomorrow, she decided, she’d go to see Odo.  He would have the solution to all her problems, just as he used to when she was a child.
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
    Berenice woke at dawn, as she usually did.  Slipping into her shift, she ran to the open window.  The morning was bright and fair and cloudless, as always, just right for her plans. 
    The castle wouldn’t miss her presence for the morning, perhaps even the entire day.  She felt a delicious sense of freedom, as though today were a holy day, and she’d now been given permission to celebrate.  Except this was even better than a holy day, with all the work entailed in preparing the festivities.  This was a day for herself and herself alone.
    She dressed in an old, comfortable dress and leather sandals, and quickly pinned up her hair and fixed her headdress. 
    She stopped at the kitchen first.  Despite dedication to his faith, her brother always appreciated Robert’s cooking, especially his almond meal biscuits.  For good measure, she added some of last season’s pears, their wrinkled brown skins concealing the sweet flesh beneath.  Wrapped in a cloth were some of the white rolls she’d baked two days before.  A small flask of wine and a piece of old cheese filled the basket.
    Berenice felt so much better today.  Her rest had revitalized her, and there was a spring in her step as she crossed the courtyard and headed out, through the gates. 
    There was no sign of the troubadour about the castle.  She didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed.  The effect he had on her was disturbing, the feelings he aroused in her were unlike anything she’d experienced before.  They were too strange, too strong, and part of her yearned for her old, peaceful existence once more.
    On the other hand, she knew a world without him would be a greyer place.  She found herself looking for him as she left the castle, but it was a fruitless exercise.  Doubtless William had found him something useful to do again.
    She took the path to the left outside the castle gates, away from the main road which wound down the valley to Pontville, the old Roman bridge and, eventually, to Bordeaux.  She followed the castle wall until she came to the river.
    Near the castle the river was broad, and deep, and slow.  Further up the valley, where the foothills began to turn into mountains, the river ran faster and was shallower.  There was another village there, a few cottages clustered around the skirts of the mill the monks had built to take advantage of the rushing waters.  On the other side of the village, where two swiftly flowing streams came together to form the river, on an outcrop of rock high above the pines and conifers, stood the monastery where Odo was Abbot.
    Berenice was proud of her brother.  He was Abbot not because he was the younger son of the family which had endowed the monastery, but because he’d been elected to the