A Triple Knot: A Novel by Emma Campion

Author:Emma Campion
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307589309
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2014-07-08T00:00:00+00:00

“SIR, SHE IS TRUE.” HUGH HELD THE CLOTH OUT TO THOMAS. “SHE kissed it and handed it back, saying you have every right to this, you are her husband, and she loves you still. She is sending her nurse to you, the healer Efa.”

“She saw me and she still speaks of love?” Thomas crushed the cloth in his hand, trying to constrict his surge of hope. “She’s wed to Salisbury’s heir. I dare not go near her.”

“My lord?” A woman stood in the doorway, wimpled and carrying a basket. “I am Efa. My lady sent me to you.”

Thomas motioned her to enter, offering her a camp chair. “How is my lady?”

“Incomplete without you, my lord.” She refused the chair. “Better that you sit and I look at your wound.” She was a small woman, the top of her head just barely reaching his shoulders, but her grasp was strong as she guided him into the chair.

“The best physicians in France worked on it,” he said as she untied the silk patch to expose the eye. “It is too damaged. What do you mean, ‘incomplete’?”

“Hush now.” She ran her fingers over the wound, with the back of her hand felt his forehead, bent to peer into both his eyes, whispering to herself all the while in Welsh. He felt a warmth spreading through him, though she had given him nothing to ingest, and he began to fear that she was casting a spell. “Efa, as in the first woman, Eve?” he asked.

Her laugh was light. “There are many Efas in my village in Wales. Sisters, daughters, granddaughters, nieces of Eve.” She went over to the basket she’d set down on a bench. “They were right, the eye itself is too damaged. But it is the condition of the wound that is my lady’s concern, and mine now that I see it. Half a year? The fine physicians gave him no unguents to soothe it and keep the scar soft and supple?” She asked it of Hugh, who stood over her, closely watching what she did.

“They did, Dame Efa, but Sir Thomas is not keen to use them.”

“Ah. Mine you will. And, while we are all here, I shall work them in each morning and each evening, as my lady wishes.” She rejoined Thomas, holding a small bowl to his nose.

Thomas was surprised by the pleasant scent. “All their unguents stank.”

“So that you believe in their healing power.” She laughed softly as she spread some of the ointment along his scar.

“Joan sent you to me?”

“How else would I be here, my lord? Now hush, feel this.”

Her touch was light, yet all along the puckered skin he felt a prickly warmth and an easing, as though skin, muscle, and bone opened the fist they’d formed against pain. He gave a great sigh as he felt his entire body relax. “What spell is this?” he whispered.

“No spell, just fine medicine,” said Efa.

Before he knew it, he was lost in a dream of reunion with Joan, holding her in his arms, kissing her.

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