Strong as Death by Sharan Newman

Author:Sharan Newman [Newman, Sharan]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Mystery & Detective, General, Fiction
ISBN: 9781405526364
Google: 17m2sZCnEG4C
Amazon: B00C2V4RIG
Publisher: Sphere
Published: 2013-04-24T13:00:00+00:00

They walked back to the town in the misty spring twilight. Fog was crawling up from the river behind them but it was still too light for a lantern. Catherine and Edgar walked with their arms around each other, well-fed and content. Solomon followed them. All at once he gave a startled exclamation. Everyone stopped.

“What is it?” Edgar asked.

“Nothing,” Solomon said. “I thought I saw someone, but it was just a pile of wood, distorted in the mist.”

“I had forgotten how much you hate fog,” Catherine said. “Come walk with us.”

Solomon came up beside them and Catherine linked her free arm in his. She could feel the tension in his body and tried to think of something to say to ease it, but her head was full of the charms and spells she had been reading all day. The fog came in wisps like stretched fingers, curling around the trees and lying in wait at hollows in the path. Catherine thought of the words she had dared to whisper. They were supposed to be the names of the seven spheres above the earth.

What if they were the names of demons of the air instead? What if she had in her ignorance called them into form? The cold damp stroked her neck and she shivered.

“Put up your hood, leoffaest,” Edgar said absently.

Catherine did. She clung more tightly to the men on either side of her. Saint Genevieve, she thought, please make there be no demons in the night. Please bring me back safely to your city.

Surely the patron saint of Paris would want to bring her child home again!

They reached the inn without incident and went immediately to bed. The next morning was bright and clear. Catherine woke early, stretched her arms and crawled over Edgar to get out of bed. Her father and uncle were still snoring, but Solomon had already wakened and dressed.

“Want me to walk you down to the privy?” he asked her.

“Let me get my shoes and bliaut on first,” Catherine whispered back. Since they all shared a room, she had slept in her shift so that she was at least partially covered.

They stopped at the outhouse behind the inn and then wandered around to the front. The sun was climbing and the heat growing. It promised to be a warm day.

They were sitting on a bench in front of the inn, sharing a slab of cheese, when the guards came. With them was a man in ragged clothes and bare feet. He pointed at them.

“That’s the man!” he shouted.

The guards moved forward and lifted Solomon from the bench, the cheese still in his hands.

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