“I knew not that the b-boy was in the stables that day! You, you,youwere to t-take him to the Beauvilles, far away—away from what I had to do.Youkilled him!”
At first, the words Armand spoke made no sense—Simone had been talking about Lady Genevieve and a young Tristan. But then Simone knew, and that awful knowledge wedged in her throat like a dry hunk of bread—she was unable to swallow it or cough it up.
Armand had set the fire that had killed Simone’s mother and Didier.
Her own father was a murderer.
He grabbed her with his one good hand and shook her as he continued. “That boy was my only flesh and b-blood! Never, ever, never would I have harmed the shortest hair on his head!My boy!M-mine!”
He dropped her back to the floor and rose, and Simone finally comprehended what he’d said to her.
“Didier was…he was your only flesh and blood?”
“Oh,oui, oui, oui,” Armand scoffed. “Of course. I would think you had figured it out yourself by now, clever—clever as you think yourself to be. I was barely conscious when I wed your whore mother. I can only assume that beggar—peddler—whoremonger—bastard Renault got on her. ’Tis why she was so eager to wed me—her family would not allow her to marry the peasant. But then she was with child, and very much in danger of being tossed out”—Armand did a fancy, hitching jig—“of Saint du Lac on her fattened arse!”
“Uncle—” Simone tried to swallow. No longer uncle. “Jehan is my father?”
“Oh, who can ever really know?” Armand shrugged and smiled. “I can assure you, though, ’twas not I. Why, when you were born, I could not even take myself with my own hand!”
Simone’s breath left her, and she twisted to the side to brace herself with one arm and threw up on Lady Genevieve’s floor. When she was done, she reached up for the coverlet on the bed and wiped her mouth.
Thank God. Thank God. I do not come from him.
“C’est répugnant,” Eldon grimaced.
“As though you should pass judgment, Eldon,” Armand tsk-ed. Then Simone heard his gleeful laugh and a rifling of parchment, and Simone knew he had found the marriage decree, still clutched in the lady’s hand.
“Ah-ha!” he crowed.“Merci,Simone. I knew you would prove useful one day!”
She turned onto her bottom once more, reluctant to have him at her back. Armand was grinning like a fool and scanning the wrinkled page. He looked at Simone.
“She tried to poison me, you know,” he said, as if imparting a great secret. “Your whore mother. She gave me a modicum of care after…after…” He glanced at Genevieve and winced, as if his words pained him. “After my accident. She thought I would die. But I did not!” He raised a fist high in the air and looked about the chamber as if he had a grand audience.
Armand’s face spasmed around his wide smile, and he blew air through his lips to right his features before continuing. “I did not know who she was when I gained consciousness, and when I learned that we were wed, I thought her to be my ally.” He threw back his head and laughed, and Simone cringed at the braying sound. “But then I would vomit after she fed me. My bowels turned to water. Pardon, Eldon,” he said when the man moaned. “I quickly discerned that she did not want me to live. I needed play sicker than I was—nearly starved—until I was well enough to move about the keep on my own in secret.”
Armand dropped to one knee and reached out a hand to gently stroke Genevieve’s hair. “But by then Portia knew about you, my lady. She began stealing the coin from Saint du Lac so that I could not fund my search for you. Oh, my fondest love. I could not have that, now could I? I had a son, then, Genevieve. To replace the one you lost.”
True fear began to grow inside Simone as she realized how deeply disturbed Armand du Roche was. “What are you going to do with us?” she asked.
“Us?” Armand’s eyebrows twitched. “I’ll do naught withus,you nosy little whore’s spawn. A ship and crew await me on the coast. My lovely bride and I shall return to France forthwith. I’ll give the king back his coin, and then we shall spend the rest of our days making love at Saint du Lac.”
“But, Genevieve isn’t your wife,” Simone whispered.
“Oh,oui, oui, oui!” Armand smiled broadly. “She is. We were wedded and bedded before…” He waved toward his head. “You know. And now that her husband and my wife have sadly passed”—he winked at Simone—“’tis as if all these years, they never happened.” He snapped the fingers of his good hand.
“What about me?” Simone asked, swallowing the vicious panic his mad explanation planted in her. “What will you do with me, Pa—Armand?”
Armand scratched at his ear like a dog and then looked thoughtfully at her. “Well, I certainly cannot leave you behind to sound the alarm to FitzTodd. And I most certainly cannot have you return to France and disrupt my bride’s adjustment to her new home with your wild tales.” He wiggled his nose. “So you shall accompany us to the coast. Once we have set sail, you may crawl back to FitzTodd and tell him what you please.” He winked at her again. “Or I may take you with us just so I can throw you overboard.”
Simone’s stomach flipped over. Armand may be quite mad, but he still possessed a deadly cleverness. If he made it back to France with Genevieve, they would both be under the protection and laws of the French king and Nicholas could not touch them. She had no choice but to go along with Armand’s insane plan and pray that Nicholas returned from battle soon and could track them, that he could somehow discover where Armand had hidden his ship.
“I’ll be no trouble to you, as long as you do not harm Lady Genevieve,” Simone said.
“Harm Lady Genevieve?” Armand drew back, offended. “Why, I would never do that, you stupid girl. Never, never, never. And I have complete faith that you’ll be no trouble at all.” He rose from the floor. “For if you are, I’ll kill you in an instant.” He showed Simone a terrifying smile.
He turned to his smelly accomplice. “Let’s be off and away, then, Eldon.” Simone gasped as he drew back the long tapestry along one wall, revealing Nick’s boyhood passage. She had hoped that Armand would wait until nightfall to flee, possibly affording enough time for someone in the keep to discover them.
Armand flicked a hand at Simone as he spoke to Eldon again. “You take that one. Watch that she doesn’t vomit on you again. You’re enough of a mess as it is.”
