Winter Tapestry by Kathy Lynn Emerson

Author:Kathy Lynn Emerson [Emerson, Kathy Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 1991-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Puzzled by her evasive manner, Roger looked more closely at the woman before him. Honor seemed preoccupied with straightening her long skirt. The scarlet fabric had a V-shaped opening at the front to allow a forepart of brocaded ivory satin to show through. For a moment Roger stared at it without realizing the significance of the colors. Then the appalling thought came to him that Honor might not know her father was dead.

“You are not in mourning,” he said carefully.

Startled, Honor met his eyes. He saw the guilt there before she could hide it by lowering her lashes.

Ursula’s snort cut off whatever excuse her mistress might have made. “She’s foresworn mourning,” the old woman said. Disapproval was writ large across her fleshy features. “Sir Anthony did not die in the true faith. It is not proper, she says, to mourn a heretic.”

Ignoring the sudden outburst, Honor seated herself on a low bench, bowing her head as if in prayer. The pose left nothing but the top of her small, square-backed bonnet for Roger to stare at. The front border of the French hood curved forward on each side to hide Honor’s ears and allowed only a tiny strip of her neatly parted light brown hair to show at the front.

Unbidden, a picture of Cordell crept into his thoughts. Careless of her appearance, she always seemed to have a dark, unruly lock escaping from under the brim of her headdress.

“I am sorry for your loss, Honor. He was a good man. I meant to visit him in Strasbourg.”

He’d been watching her intently, and saw the jerk of her clasped hands. So that was the way of it. She’d been trying to keep her father’s whereabouts secret, fearing retribution at the hands of the new government.

“I know Cordell was with him,” Roger continued, “but I do not know where she is now.”

The smile pasted on Honor’s face was patently false. “Why she is still in Strasbourg. I had a letter to inform me that she planned to remain there with Mistress Ponet, her dear friend.”

Roger wondered if there was any profit in questioning Honor further about her sister. For whatever reasons, she was loath to confide in him, just as he did not choose to inform her of the few details he knew of Cordell’s movements.

Was it possible Cordell had returned and had sworn Honor to secrecy? Somehow he doubted it. Honor had never been one to go along with her younger sister’s wishes. In truth, she had been behind some of the cruelest pranks Roger had been blamed for playing on Cordell when they were children. His extreme shyness, and some misguided notion that he should not be a tell-tale tit, had protected the older girl.

“Why do you seek Cordell?” Ursula’s voice was low and suspicious. “Why now?”

“Why to offer my condolences,” he lied smoothly, glad he’d not mentioned that he had seen her in Strasbourg, or even reached there. “And there was a small matter I wished to take up with Tom Glovering while I was here, but I did not see him below.

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