The Sword of Revenge by Jack Ludlow

Author:Jack Ludlow [Jack Ludlow]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780749040956
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2011-08-21T04:00:00+00:00

‘Why do I feel that you are always on the verge of asking me something?’ Claudia smiled at him, giving a good impression of curiosity, but she was obviously flustered. ‘May I speak plainly?’

‘I was never aware that you did anything else,’ she replied.

‘I get the impression that often, when we talk, you have a question on your lips. When you speak, your expression does not always match the words you use.’

‘Perhaps I have a singular expression.’

‘Or an awkward question, Lady!’ He had spoken more sharply than intended and the look of alarm on her face proved it. ‘Please, forgive me. I did not intend to distress you.’

‘Do you like me, Cholon?’ she asked.

‘I never dine regularly with people I hate,’ he replied, flippantly.

But Claudia was serious, her handsome brow knitted with the lines of worry. ‘That’s not what I asked.’

‘Yes, I do.’

‘If I were to ask you for the one secret which you have, and I crave, would you tell me?’ He shook his head, but that was because of doubt, not a refusal. Her voice was under very tight control, which gave it a hard quality, when she was really striving for a supplicant one. ‘You must be able to guess what that is, Cholon. I want to know where Aulus exposed my son.’

He sat still for some time, his head shaking very slowly from side to side. ‘I am given to wondering, having at last been asked, if that is the only reason I’m invited to dine so often.’

The voice broke and she was on the verge of tears. ‘I’m so desperate for an answer, Cholon, that I would not be able to tell you if that is right or wrong.’

Cholon stood up suddenly. ‘I must go.’

Her hand was out in panic. ‘No. Stay!’

‘I cannot. You asked me if I liked you. Would it serve as an answer to say that if I stayed here I would be tempted to betray a sacred trust?’

‘Please?’

The tears came and he could not help crying too. ‘The boy is dead, Lady Claudia. I betray no secret when I say that your husband made sure of that.’

‘He wouldn’t kill him. He couldn’t!’

‘Not by his own hand, but he was so far from a place where he might be found that he could not have survived.’

‘Then it would do no harm to tell me where it is.’

Thoas, on the other side of the door, was willing Cholon to speak as much as Claudia. When the door flew open he was caught half-crouched and the tearful Greek, leaving in haste, nearly knocked him over.

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