In Honor Bound by DeAnna Julie Dodson Read Free Book Online Page B

beguiled him soundly. Many a mistress aspires to be wife, and, if wife to him, then queen."
    "Philip would never step so far as to marry one of these common wenches!" Robert said, shocked more at the idea of such a marriage than at such a murder.
    "He has refused all the others. I hardly dare to speak it, but might he not set this girl up one day as Lynaleigh's queen? I fear even the thought, but it seems he'll never take a noble wife as long as this base wench is alive."
    "No."
    "He is your heir now. If you should die before his marriage, he would be free to choose a wife for himself. He thinks he loves this drab."
    "But he'd not marry her!"
    "If I know him, my liege, as no doubt you do, he'll have no other so long as she lives."
    "Would you have me take her life?"
    "Would you have her bastard blood forever pollute the line of Lynaleighan kings?"
    Robert was galled by the thought. "He says he loves her, calls her fair and virtuous and most loving to him. He has braved me again and again for her sake. Can I condemn her and keep my son?"
    "Is she truly all these things, my lord, or does she merely seem so to him?" Dunois lowered his voice. "I have heard that a man might be–" He paused and almost imperceptibly stressed the word. "– bewitched by such a woman."
    For a moment, Robert thought he might laugh at the suggestion, then understanding flashed through him and he crossed himself. "God defend us, do you think her a witch?"
    There was a certain archness behind the concern in the lord chamberlain’s expression.
    "It could explain, to the satisfaction of any who might raise questions, his sudden infatuation with her and his disobedience to you and why she must not live. A young prince of such promise would be especially prized by the evil one. Doubtless the girl has been empowered by Satan expressly to draw him into destruction. Still, we must not act rashly in so grave a matter. This should be tried in court."
    "The girl is nothing, but Philip would never forgive me such a trial."
    "Send him away, my liege. When he returns, she will be gone and he will quickly forget her. Such light wenches are easily replaced in a boy's fancy."
    "Where?"
    "To Amberly, so please you. The unrest there has too long been neglected and we both well know how apt my young lord is to win a people's loyalty with just a few brave words."
    Robert looked at his counselor, an awed, admiring fascination in his eyes. "What will you have, my lord, to pay you for saving my kingdom yet again?"
    "I only wish your happiness, Your Majesty, and my lord Philip's, of course. I wish him happy in his marriage, too. Of all the ladies that might be suitable for him, I noted but one that seemed to win his favor."
    "Your Marian."
    Dunois' answer was a self-deprecating shrug, but the king's expression turned thoughtful.
    "Your lady was of the Chastelaynes, I know, Dunois, and Marian is heir to your lands. More importantly, Philip did seem to favor her most of all the nobility."
    "Perhaps he will take the Fletcher girl's loss the better if Marian above all the others was chosen."
    Robert paused for a moment, remembering the pleas his son had made. "For Philip's sake, I cannot on so slight evidence take the girl's life."
    "Not even if it was she who made away with the poor innocent child of the son you lost?"
    "There is no proof of that."
    "I spoke to Princess Margaret earlier this morning, my liege. She remembered taking a potion to ease her discomfort shortly before her pains started."
    "So Philip said, and it was given her by Merryn."
    "It was given her by Katherine Fletcher."
    "Dunois–"
    "Who is to say it was not? The child is dead, my lord, whether by chance or by design. If this charge was proved against Katherine Fletcher, could you not then, in law, rid yourself of her and remove this dangerous hindrance to your son's reign? Surely, my lord Philip would not sanction murder just for the benefit of his lust."
    "Let it be so," Robert said after long consideration.