Velvet Song by Jude Deveraux

Author:Jude Deveraux [Deveraux, Jude]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

It was late at night, and most of the guests were lying drunken on the floor or sprawled

across the tables when a servant whispered to the man sitting in the corner. With a smile, the man rose and went outside to greet these newly arrived guests.

“You’ll never believe who is here,” the man said to the one dismounting.

“What! no greeting?” he asked sarcastically. “No concern for my safety? Come, John,

you’re letting your teeth show.”

“I have remained sober to tell you this. That should be enough.”

“True, that is a great sacrifice.” He gave the reins of his horse to a waiting servant. “Now, what is so important that it can’t wait until I’ve had some wine myself?”

“Ah, Pagnell, you’re too impatient. Remember that little songbird this winter? The one

who knocked you over the head?”

Pagnell stiffened, glaring at John. It was all he could do to keep from fingering the ugly

scar on his forehead. He’d had headaches ever since that night, and although he’d tortured to death some of the people from her town, no one would tell him where she was. Every time a pain shot through his head, he vowed he’d see her burn for what she’d done to him. “Where is she?”

John laughed deep in his throat. “Inside and swelled out with a brat. She’s traveling with a pretty lad and the two of them are singin’ as pretty as you please.”

“Now? I thought everyone would be asleep.”

“They are, but I marked where the lad and the songbird stretched out.”

Pagnell stood still for a moment, contemplating his next move. When he and his friends

had gone over the town wall looking for Alyx, he’d been drunk and so had bungled the job. Now he mustn’t make that mistake again.

“If she cried out,” Pagnell said, “would she receive help?”

“Most of them are dead drunk; the snoring’s so loud a charge of gunpowder might not be

heard.”

Pagnell looked up at the old stone walls. “Does this place have a dungeon, some place for

keeping prisoners before they’re executed?”

“Why wait? We’ll tie her to a stake and burn her as the sun rises.”

“No, some people frown at that, and with the King in this melancholy mood, who knows

how he’ll react? We’ll do this legal. A cousin of mine is conducting court not far from here.

We’ll toss the slut in the cellar, then I’ll talk to my cousin and when I return, we’ll have a trial.

Then we’ll watch her burn. Now show me where she is.”

Alyx was lying in an uncomfortable sleep, trying her best to position her big stomach,

when a hideous whisper sounded in her ear. The voice, one she had never forgotten, and never would, sent shivers down her spine, made her skin tighten.

“If you want your little play fellow to live, you’ll be quiet,” came the voice.

Pressed against her throat was the sharp steel of a knife. She didn’t need to open her eyes to see Pagnell’s face leering into hers. It was a face that had haunted her dreams for months.

“Have you thought about me, sweetheart?” he whispered, his face very, very close to hers.

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