Sanctuary of Roses by Colleen Gleason

Author:Colleen Gleason
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: castles, medieval, knights, medieval england, medieval romance, henry ii, eleanor of aquitaine, colleen gleason, medieval historical romance, catherine coulter, julie garwood, ladies and lords
Publisher: Colleen Gleason

Fifteen

Despite the fact that he’d just left Henry’s presence, Gavin was readmitted to the king’s courtroom upon his request. The courtier who had dismissed him an hour earlier swung the large oaken door open once again, bowing Gavin into the large room.

“Aye, Gavin, what is it that brings you back so soon?” Henry griped, glancing up from a parchment missive that still had a bit of blue wax clinging to it.

“De Belgrume is here. And he nearly relieved you of the wardship of his daughter.” Rage still simmered in his hands, causing them to clench and unclench in memory of Fantin’s soft neck.

“What? Here? In my court?” Henry bolted from his chair. “How can that be? He has been banned for two winters!”

“I do not know, but he would have made off with Madelyne had I not arrived on the scene as I did. I can only suspect that he was waiting without for an opportunity to grab her. You know as well as I the number of spies in this court.” Gavin stepped aside as his king stalked off the dais and past him to thrust the parchment he’d been holding into the face of his secretary, who sat, shoulders scrunched, in the corner.

“And did you do no damage to the man?”

Gavin’s mouth tightened. “I nearly sent the man to his grave. My hands were thus about his skinny neck.”

“Nearly?” Henry bellowed. “Why in the blazes did you not rid me of that pestilence—and yourself of the same man who has taken so much from you?”

“I could have, my lord…but she begged me stay my hand, and I did.”

“Surely she does not care for his health. There was fear in her eyes when I mentioned his name.”

“She is murderously afraid of the man, and moreso now that she has felt the madness again. But she is a nun—or meant to be—my liege, and she does not believe in wanton killing. She…prays for the souls of men of violence. Those such as you and I.”

Henry gave him an assessing look. “You stayed your hand at the throat of your deepest enemy because a woman begged you to? You, Mal Verne—you who have been made a cuckold, a near-murderer, a laughing-stock by that man?” He scratched his wiry copper hair, shaking his head. “I would have rewarded you greatly should you have relieved my kingdom of such a pestilence.”

Gavin swallowed annoyance at the reminder of de Belgrume’s sins upon himself: all of them, and, too, the damage done to his cousin Judith. “Ah, but then you—in your infinite quest for justice—would have had to throw me in the dungeon for murder,” he reminded the king.

“Many in the land know de Belgrume is mad—with all of his talk of finding the secrets of the ancients and turning metals into gold.”

“Aye. The man has the flame of madness in his eyes that was not there even six moons ago. He spoke as if he was doing the Will of God, as if he had some power from the Almighty behind him,” Gavin replied, his face settling into soberness.

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