Lady of Fire by Anita Mills Read Free Book Online Page A

looked when he was purified for knighthood. He looked up, caught her awestruck expression, and looked away.
    "Roger, something troubles you—something more than Maman or than your leaving Nantes." She took his hand and held it to her cheek. "Is it Glynis?"
    "My mother leaves Nantes. We escort her as far as Abbeville, where she will join the sisters there."
    "My father sends her away to salve his conscience over Maman," Eleanor muttered bitterly.
    "Nay—she chose to leave."
    "Roger, nobody goes to a convent who does not have to."
    He took another deep breath and shook his head. "Lea, I would tell you this only because I know Gilbert will do it and I'd rather you heard from one who at least loves you."
    "Heard what? Roger, what is it that is so terrible that you cannot speak to me of it?"
    "Well, because of what he thinks everyone is saying, Gilbert wishes to appear devoted to your mother. What she could not get out of him in life, she will get in death."
    "I don't understand."
    "She is having you sent away. She has demanded that Gilbert make a gesture of penance—something that will aid her soul—and that gesture is you." He paused and stared at the girl so soon to be a beautiful woman. "You will be dedicated to Holy Church."
    Eleanor sat stunned. It could not be. She who had a future perhaps even as a prince's bride—she was to be a nun. She who practiced her religion by rote and who let her attention wander at Mass? Nay, it could not be.
    "Look at me." Roger turned her face toward his. "Soon you will be summoned to hear Gilbert tell you what I have just said. Try to appear to accept it."
    "What choice do I have?" she asked bitterly. "I am as much an outcast in this family as you are. Oh, Roger, I could bear it as a child because of you, but now I will not have even that."
    "Nay, Lea, you'll always have me. I will always be your champion." He saw the hurt and confusion mirrored in her face and sought to explain. "I have not the resource nor the strength to do anything for you now, but the time will come when I will free you from wherever Gilbert sends you. There are things I cannot tell you—things I dare not tell you now—that may change everything for you and me, Lea. Trust me, and remember that I will come for you when I can."
    "When? Days? Months? Years? Oh, Roger, I can not bear it—I will grow old and die there."
    "Listen, Lea, I have told you I'll get you out—and I will." Roger sought for some means to convince her that all was not hopeless. "Here…" He pulled her after him behind the altar. Reaching into the base of Christ's statue, he drew out the small gold casket. "In this box lies a relic of a saint—Saint Catherine, I think." He knelt on the flagstone in front of Eleanor and placed the box between his hands. "I, Roger, called FitzGilbert, do swear on this sacred relic that I will be Eleanor of Nantes' man, to champion her causes and give her justice, yea, even to the end of my life."
    "Roger! You cannot! You must not! 'Tis blasphemy; to swear that which you cannot keep!"
    "Nay, Lea, I have done it, and I will keep my oath to you."
    "But you are bound to me by such an oath!"
    "Aye. I will have liege lords and swear to my sovereign, but my first allegiance will be to you." He took the small metal box and replaced it into its niche beneath the statue. "Now—it is important that you do not become a nun. They will be at you, badgering and praying, until you take your vows. Do not take them even if you are punished for refusing. It will be hard, Lea, but as long as you are a layperson, you will have the freedom to leave one day if Gilbert or your guardian orders it."
    "And if I cannot?"
    "Nay, Lea, you will."
    She nodded slowly, a glimmer of hope somewhere in the dark future to light her way. "Roger," she said quietly, "I'll take an oath to you."
    He smiled as he rose and dusted off his knees. "Not yet. You are too young to know your own mind, and I would not have you promise that which you might not want