Suzanne Robinson by Lady Defiant Read Free Book Online

can protect you. Robert was right, you know. The roads are dangerous, crawling with vermin of all sorts. And what if there’s rebellion? Our cloth-headed Catholic neighbors might take issue with the queen over religion. Too bad that young Blade, er, Nicholas Fitzstephen, offended you. I’ve heard his sword could slice a fairy’s wing, and he’s set all the queen’s maids sighing on his visits to court.”
    “He’s mean.”
    “Now, child, I thought you’d come to understand his discourtesy. If I had a father who beat me for laughing aloud or for falling off my pony when I was nine, I’d do more than give him barbs and threats. I remember hearing years ago that Andrew Fitzstephen near killed the boy with his whip. That was after he’d done the same for the mother and the boy tried to stop him.”
    “I know, I know, I know.” Oriel pressed her palms to her ears. “Don’t speak of it, I pray you. Such talk makes me long to steal into Fitzstephen’s castle and put acid in his ale.”
    “Then you forgive the boy.”
    “Marry, Uncle, what choice have I? But I still remember what he said.”
    Oriel rose and stood in front of a window. She bent her knees and ducked until she caught her reflection in a pane.
    “He was right. My face is so pointed I look like a weasel—no, a ferret.” She stuck her tongue out at her reflection.
    “A hedgehog, perchance?”
    Oriel turned and grinned at her uncle. “Or a dolphin.”
    “A squirrel.”
    “A rich squirrel,” Oriel said. She sat down in thewindow seat and put her chin in her hand. “So I’m to be hounded into marriage.”
    “Hounded apace, may a pox take your aunts.”
    “Then you must come to my aid. Bethink yourself of all the men I could marry, and I will make a list as well. I will be the one to choose my husband, not them.”
    “The choice belongs to George as your guardian.”
    “But George I can bend to my way of thinking.” Oriel rose and approached Thomas. She whispered in his ear. “And hark you, if he listens to Aunt Livia or Aunt Faith, I shall run away with the man I choose.”
    “Only if you’re able to remember his name, child. Only if you remember his name.”

Chapter
4

    One must therefore he a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves
    —
Niccolo Machiavelli
    Blade cursed and threw his goblet at the chimneypiece. The crystal shattered against the stone, and wine splashed, making a carved column appear to bleed.
    “The queen’s gone mad.”
    Christian de Rivers, who had been standing near the fire, gave his mantel a rueful glance, but otherwise maintained his somnolent pose. “Why say you so?”
    “Don’t pretend ignorance. No doubt this is your contriving, this idea to send Matthew Stewart to Scotland. What care you if he’s married to old King Henry’s niece, whose son is a Catholic and has a claim to the throne? Margaret Lennox has plotted her whole life to claim England, and Matthew is as dangerous.”
    Blade paused to glare at Christian. They had beensharing a rare moment of repose, for soon Blade would leave London, and each time they parted, neither could be sure of seeing the other alive again. Tempestuous as their friendship was, Blade was grateful to Christian for rescuing him from the highwayman Jack Midnight.
    Eight years ago the thief and his band had fallen upon Blade’s traveling party on their way to deliver their young master to university. In the skirmish, Blade had suffered a wound to the head and awakened with no memory of who he was. Midnight, a dispossessed farmer turned outlaw, carried a deep-seated hatred of the nobility. He’d turned this hatred into a quest for vengeance against any hapless aristocrat who fell in his path. Thus he’d abducted Christian as a child and trained him in thievery, only to lose him. By an unhappy chance, he found a replacement in Blade, a better one, for with no memory, Blade had believed Midnight’s claim that he belonged to the band of highwaymen.
    Looking back,