Kathryn Le Veque by Lord of Light Read Free Book Online Page B

grew more lovely and enchanting by the moment. Had he not been
concerned with his present situation, he would have realized he was completely
smitten with her. Maybe it was because he had been so out of touch for the past
three years, but maybe not; she would have enchanted him in a room full of
enchantresses.
    “I’ve been thinking,” he said as
he chewed, “that we are in a precarious situation.”
    She swung her legs in rhythm with
her jaw munching the bread. “ We?”
    He cast her a sidelong glance. “Of course. You have gotten me into
this mess and now I must get us out.”
    She stopped chewing and looked at
him with big, sad eyes. “But you just said….”
    He gave her such an exaggerated
expression that she knew instantly he was jesting with her. “I know what I
said, you little troublemaker. I can see that this situation, and you, will be
the supreme test of my cunning abilities.”
    She finished her bread and
brushed off her hands. “I’ve always been a troublemaker. You may as well know
that.”
    He eyed her with overstated
wariness. “Since when?”
    “Since my mother died giving
birth to me.”
    He sobered dramatically.   “My mother died in childbirth as well.”
    “With you?
    “Giving birth to my younger
sister, who also perished,” he said. “I vowed at that moment that if I ever
married, my wife would never have children. I would not want to burden her with
my child only to see her die an agonizing death.”
    Alisanne was silent a moment,
listening to the cold wind blow through the thick trees. “But one is married to
perpetuate the family.”
    He lifted his big shoulders,
gazing off across the white cloaked land. “I joined the sect of the
Hospitallers of St. John the Baptist when I was twenty-one years of age, a sect
that practices celibacy, so that is something I’ve not had to worry about in
fourteen years.”
    Alisanne didn’t know why she felt
a strange sense of disappointment in his statement. “So you will never marry?”
    He didn’t reply. He was so still
that Alisanne wondered if he had even heard the question. She was beginning to
regret asking it.
    “Since my sect is trying to kill
me, I don’t suppose I need to be loyal to my vows,” he said thoughtfully.
“Marriage would be considered under the right circumstances, I suppose.”
    “What circumstances would that
be?”
    He turned to look at her. “Why?
Do you want to marry me?”
    She blushed so brightly that he
thought her face might explode and he laughed at her. “Alisanne, if there was
one woman in the world I might consider marrying, it would be you. But since
you are already betrothed.…”
    “My father only said what he did
because Dodge forced him to,” she insisted. “But if you were to mayhap vanquish
Dodge somehow, then I would be free to marry whomever I choose.”
    He was still grinning, lifting an
eyebrow as he spoke. “Like me?”
    She mirrored his jesting
expression. “Are you asking?”
    He looked away. “Never.”
    Her smile faded. “I don’t blame
you, of course. No one wants an invalid wife.”
    Roane turned sharply to look at
her, noting that she was staring out into the veil of fog. Her brilliant green
eyes were bloodshot and swollen this morn, reminding him of what she had told
him. I am losing my sight, she had
said.   He’d never once in three years
reconsidered his vow never to use the curse God had given him. But as he stared
at Alisanne, he found himself doing precisely that.
    “Are you really losing your
sight, Alisanne?” he asked softly. “Tell me the truth.”
    She didn’t say anything for a
moment. Then, when she spoke, it was soft and distant.
    “A year ago I began having
trouble with my eyes,” she murmured. “They were very red and everything seemed
blurred, so my father engaged a physic from Worcester to examine my eyes. He
said that I had a disease that would eventually blind me. Since then, my eyes
have grown steadily worse.   It is much
better in bright