“You have my undying gratitude,” the soldier said, bowing. He offered his arm with a smile, looking much more relaxed. Simone felt she had done a very good deed. After all, she wished Nicholas’s men and servants to like her. “Now, allow me to escort you personally to the lord.”
Simone took Randall’s arm and, turning to pull the door closed, paused to point surreptitiously first at Didier and then at the floor:You stay in this chamber.
“Oh, alright,” the boy sighed. “But don’t be long.”
Simone winked at him, and then closed the door after her.
“Sister, Sister,” Didier muttered to the empty room. “What have you done?”
Chapter 13
“You wished to see me, my lord?”
Nick looked up from belting on his sheath to see Simone standing in the doorway, as fresh and pretty as he remembered. He sent her a smile and motioned for her to enter.
“I did.” He watched her sink gracefully into a straight-backed chair before his accounting table, hands folded in her lap, a gentle curve to her lips
But was that a shadow of disquiet in her eyes?
He did not want to leave her so soon. Even with her many eccentricities, Simone was like a cool woodland brook, soothing and fragrant, lending a quiet vibrancy to Hartmoore’s vast, gray canvas. He must have stared for several moments, for Simone flushed and prompted him.
“My lord?”
“Hmm? Pardon me.” Nick shook himself and walked around the table to stand before her, resting his backside against the table’s edge. “And how have you faired this morn?”
“Quite well. Except I—” she shook her head, chewing at her bottom lip, and her eyes flashed again with uncertainty. “My…my mother was keeping a secret.”
Nick tried to keep the frown from his face, his tone neutral. “A secret? Of what?”
Simone shook her head again. “She only alluded to it in the last entry. I was reading them aloud to Didier to keep…to keep him occupied. I was forced to put the journals away before I could learn more.”
“You do not wish for him to hear what your mother had written?”
“Nay.Nay.The things she wrote, the foul words she used”—her full mouth thinned into a grimace—“I cannot imagine my mother merelythinkingsuch vile things, never mind putting them to paper.”
Nick leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “This frightens you.”
“Yea. If you had known my mother, you would understand. Even in her most raging temper, she never—” Simone broke off, pausing to collect herself. “She wrote that she prayed for my father’s death.”
Nick raised his eyebrows. “’Tis serious, indeed.”
Simone nodded, and Nick saw the plea for help in her eyes before she spoke. “Would that you read the entry yourself, my lord. I cannot—” She paused again. “I fear any conclusion I would come to would be colored by my emotion.”
“Of course I will read it.” To himself, Nick added another clue to the riddle of his wife’s broken family. Perhaps ’twas no simple marital animosity that sparked Portia and Armand’s violent battles but some terrible secret Simone’s mother harbored. Something Armand had learned. Could that knowledge be so threatening that he would be moved to kill his own wife?
But what role did the boy play in this deadly tragedy? Surely Didier must have posed some threat to have his young life snuffed short. But why then spare Simone? Of the two offspring, Simone would likely be the most dangerous if only because of her advanced age and comprehension.
Nick recalled Didier’s offering of the cold water, the feeling of falling, drowning…
He pulled himself back to his wife’s concerned face. “Unfortunately, though, the journal must wait until I return.”
“Return?” Simone’s expression turned from dismay to surprise. “Where do you go?”
“To the village of Obny, but a half-day’s ride.”
“Of course—the attack.” Simone’s eyes fell to her lap. “Will you be long away?”
“Nay—but overnight.” Nick could plainly see the disappointment on Simone’s face, and his conscience spasmed. In truth, he would like nothing more than to remain with her at Hartmoore, read Portia’s cryptic journal entries, and see that Didier did not cause any more mischief. But this journey was much delayed already. Obny’s minor assault by the renegade Welsh was a final, dire warning to Nick that he must set aside Evelyn’s betrayal to serve his barony and his long-neglected friend.
