The Sister Queens by Sophie Perinot

Author:Sophie Perinot [Perinot, Sophie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General Fiction, cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 9781101577288
Publisher: NAL
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

MARGUERITE

APRIL 1249

LIMASSOL, CYPRUS

“We are back where it began,” Jean says. We sit, side by side, our horses drawn so close that our knees touch, looking down upon the city of Limassol. Yesterday the court returned to the coast in preparation for the voyage to the Holy Land.

“Did I love you this much then?” I ask teasingly. Then shaking my head I add more seriously, “No, I could not even imagine such a love.”

Jean has taken me riding. As one of Louis’s closest intimates he is trusted with everything, and certainly with my safe conduct. For appearances I have Marie with me. She sits on her own mount at a respectful distance. How glad I am now that I trusted her with my secret on the morning after I first took Jean to my bed in this very city. I remember how I feared her censure; how I dreaded telling her. But I had no choice—I needed her to take charge of my linens, which would betray my having lain with a man to any woman not virgin herself. And I knew also I would need her assistance if I were to have any hope of continuing my intimacy with the Seneschal of Champagne. How surprised I was when, after I made my confession, she threw her arms about my neck saying, “Bless you, lady! At last you will be loved as you deserve.”

“Are you ready to go to the Holy Land?” Jean asks, calling me back to the present.

It seems an odd question. That is why we set forth from France, and already we have been away from home twice the time that I promised my little Louis. “Of course. And surely, despite the pleasures Cyprus has afforded”—I run my hand along the top of his thigh and leave it resting there in comfortable familiarity—“you are eager to be in battle? You are like all the others in this, like the king himself, spoiling to spill the blood of the Sultan of Cairo and his men.”

Jean laughs. “You are right. I came to fight. But I dread two things about our departure from Cyprus—the weeks we must spend on separate ships without sound, sight, or touch of each other, and being as sick at sea as I was coming here.”

“And which is worse, Sieur, being sick or being lonely?”

“I cannot make a fair comparison”—he gives me an easy smile—“as I have scarce gone two days without seeing you in the last four months.”

The sun is setting off to our right. The water in the bay is touched with shades of pink. I am lost in my own thoughts and Jean in his. When we return to the palace, we will make love in the little walled garden where I first received Jean on the day Louis retained him. The air, already warming, will kiss my skin as Jean does. Then I will retreat to my rooms with the smell of him on my flesh, and Jean will go and sit with Louis until it is time for him to return to his lodgings for the evening.

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