The Wolf in the Cloister by Emily Leverett

Author:Emily Leverett
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Falstaff Crush
Published: 2020-04-23T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Bleiz trotted down the spiral stairs, the scent of Marie heavy in his senses. A small smile played at his lips. Her heart sped up when he was around her. Less than he had hoped it would, sure. But she was moved nonetheless. And she was more than just literate—she was educated. And curious. It didn’t hurt that she also seemed to find him attractive, if her speechless pause in the bath was any indication. She was beautiful, too—from the glance he had gotten when he caught her, the freckles definitely spread beyond her face. Last, she made him laugh. He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had done that.

Playing with her for a while would be fun. Then again, he wasn’t certain exactly what he was playing with. She was young, to be sure, but he wondered how long ago she had taken holy orders. For one, the dress she wore today, tangled as the strings were, was fashionable. It looked like something from her previous life but not so very long ago. The tear she shed, what was that about? For a moment, it had looked like her heart was breaking, but that could have been anything.

“Don’t be stupid,” he scolded himself. “You know what that look was.” The thought of giving a nun a night, or five, to remember, an experience to keep her warm on the cold nights in the abbey, delighted him. Playing with Marie’s affections after the ache he had seen on her face? That was a cruelty he couldn’t muster.

He shook the thoughts away. For now, he would forget about the problems. The fantasy of returning to find her curled in his bed reading any one of his books would carry him quite well for the next three days.

Bleiz hurried for the gardens. He’d spent too much time with Marie, and his senses were reeling—the transformation would come whether he wanted it or not, and whether he was in his safe place or not. Fear caught him, and he ran through the gardens all the way to the very back to his own small stone-walled garden, behind which was the edge of the dense forest. He touched a brick on the back wall and pushed through a small, secret door.

The stone door settled closed behind him, and he inhaled the air. The scents of the forest shot through him. Wet earth, trees, leaves, and the blooms of hundreds of flowers. The panic eased a bit—he was outside Sarum, away from people. He followed a path he had walked hundreds of times, though it would be hard for someone else to pick out if they did not know it was there, more a deer trail than anything. He wound his way deeper into the canopy until the light filtered in from the trees in small rays piercing a quiet darkness.

As the ripples of the change started to come over him, he ran, sprinting through the trees until he broke out into a clearing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.