On My Lady's Honor (All for one, and one for all) by Kate Silver Read Free Book Online Page A

shut the door, pushed the dresser against it to be sure she was free from interruption, and washed as well as she could in the rapidly-cooling water.   How could she ever pull off her masquerade when she was so obviously a woman?   Would it not be evident by the way she walked and talked – even by the way she wore her clothes?   She would be exposed in front of all of Gerard’s companions, and shame him for ever.
    The gruel was edible, but little more than that.   In her hunger, she wolfed it down anyway.   The hard winter had robbed her of most of her reserves of body fat.   She hoped the food at the barracks would be more appetizing than her landlady’s meager mush or she would grow thinner than ever.   She had to build up her strength or she would easily be discovered.
    The night was warm and the city air that crept in through the open casement window was heavy and putrid.   She tossed and turned throughout the night, disturbed by the cloying heat and unfamiliar noises and smells of the city that surrounded her, dreaming of discovery and shame.
    In the early hours of the morning she was wakened by the calls of the street-sellers peddling their wares.   With a groan she rose, wrapped her breasts in a thick layer of linen strips, and covered them with her shirt, tucked into her leather breeches.   The wrappings felt doubly uncomfortable and constricting in the thick, moist heat of the city but she was woman enough that she had to bind her breasts tightly to hide them.   She would not allow her womanhood to be discovered through such an elementary mistake.
    The barracks were close by the lodging house - in the very center of the heat and noise and dirt of the city.   By the time she arrived there on foot, the perspiration was dripping down her neck and soaking into her clothes.
    Men in the uniform of the King’s Guard hustled hither and thither, all seemingly engaged on errands of supreme importance.   Sophie stood confused in the midst of the commotion, feeling lost and out of place, not knowing which way to turn.
    She felt tears prick the back of her eyelids.   Gerard would have known what to do and where to go.  
    Gerard was no longer there to help her.   She was on her own.   With all the resolution she could muster, she squared her shoulders and began to stride off in a random direction, hoping that she looked more purposeful and in control than she felt.
    She was arrested in mid-step by the shout of a fellow Musketeer.   “Gerard?   Gerard, is that really you?”
    Sophie stopped dead in her tracks and instinctively turned away from the voice.   A critical part of her plan had been to avoid all Gerard’s old friends as much as possible, to lessen the chance of discovery.   “What do you want?”   She pitched her voice as low as she could, making it sound curt with impatience.
    The Musketeer stopped short.   “Gerard?”   His voice was puzzled and hurt.   “Where are you off to in such a confounded hurry?   Have you no time to greet your friend?”
    Sophie took in his appearance out of the corner of her eye.   He was taller than average, certainly far taller than she was, and broader in the shoulders than most men.   Despite his bulk, he wore the flared jacket of his uniform with an unstudied grace that she couldn’t help but envy, though he walked with a slight limp and noticeably favored one side above the other.   His hair was a rich wheaten gold that curled around his shoulders and his thigh-high boots were gleaming with polish.   She wondered which one of Gerard’s friends or acquaintances he was, but short of exposing herself by asking him, she had no way of knowing.
    Whoever he was, he was well worth the looking at, did she ever have the liberty to look.   She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped the toe of her boot on the ground.   “I’m looking for the Captain.   Have you seen him?”
    The Musketeer gestured to the group of buildings on the far side of the