The Sorceror's Revenge by Linda Sole Read Free Book Online Page A

threw her up on his horse and mounted behind her.  As his arms surrounded her, imprisoning her, she felt a crushing sensation in her breast and thought she might die of her grief.
                  Anne shook her head.  She wanted to deny him but was very much afraid he was indeed her husband, because Nicholas had told her the truth.  Oh, why had she not told him she would stay with him?  Why had they not fled before the earl came?
                  Nicholas was dead and she felt as if her world had fallen apart.  The pain of seeing the man she loved killed so brutally before her eyes was tearing her in two.  How could she ever have loved a man such as this arrogant earl?  He was harsh and cruel and his men had murdered her servants…her beloved husband.  Even though the church had never blessed their union, Anne felt that the man she loved was her true husband.
                  She would never forgive this man who had claimed her as his wife.  Her promise to Nicholas remained.  She would sleep alone until they were reunited, which could now only be in death.
     
     
     
     
     
    6
     
    Anne’s tears had dried by the time they arrived at the abbey.  She was silent and stony-faced as the earl lifted her down from his horse.
                  ‘Your sister awaits you inside, Melloria.  Go to her.  Ask Beatrice for the truth.  You think me cruel because I have taken you from the man who held you prisoner.  When you are calmer you will begin to realise that what I have done was for your sake.’
                  Anne moved her head negatively but would not answer him.  Her eyes glittered with hatred as she went ahead of him into the convent.  A nun beckoned to her and she followed, a strange feeling of peace beginning to spread through her now that she was no longer with the man who had brought her world crashing down.
                  ‘The child is safe with Mother Abbess,’ the nun said softly.  ‘Welcome back, my lady.  We are glad to see you well for you were sincerely mourned by all here.’
                  ‘You know me?’
                  ‘You are the Countess Melloria Devereaux, wife to the earl and sister to Mother Abbess.  We all thought you had died out there on the moors in the winter snows.’  The nun stopped outside a door.  ‘Mother is within and the child with her.  She is waiting for you. Please go in, my lady.’
                  Anne’s heart was beating so fast that she could scarcely breathe.  She knocked at the door and was invited to enter.  As she went in, Iolanthe screamed and broke from the Abbess running towards her.  Anne scooped her up and held her, comforting her as she sobbed and stroking her hair.  Over her head, she looked at the woman standing quietly looking at her and in that brief second she knew her.
                  ‘Beatrice…’ Melloria said and the tears streamed down her cheeks.  She walked towards her still holding the child.  ‘My dearest sister.  I remember when we were children but I have forgotten so much…’
                  ‘You lost your memory?’  Beatrice’s anxious expression cleared.  ‘He did not cast a spell on you?’
                  ‘Nicholas was everything that is good and kind,’ Melloria said and stood Iolanthe down so that she could embrace her sister.  ‘For a long time I could recall nothing of my former life but gradually I remembered happy things…the way we played as children.  It broke our mother’s heart when you came here.’
                  ‘I was sorry that Mother could not accept that I must devote my life to God.’  Beatrice stood back and looked at her.  To show too much pleasure in her sister’s resurrection would be wrong for a woman who had given her life to God.  It was enough that Melloria was restored to her family.  ‘Did I do right to