It waswrong.
He paced all of that day, wanting only to be back at his lady’sside.
Yet Annelise was not slow of wit. Her guesses showed a fearsome accuracy. She might guess all the truth without him confiding in her atall!
Rolfe halted in the forest and looked back toward the palace. She might guess his truth. What if she learned of the curse, but not from him? What if the palace revealed his situation to her? He would not have confided in her directly then, so perhaps she would not lead a killer to hisside.
Even if she did, even inadvertently, if he was his own self all of the time, he could defend them both from anyfoe.
Rolfe eyed the palace. He thought of Annelise, her fire and passion, her loyalty and herpersistence.
Then hewished.
I wish that my lady wife should find something in the palace that would help us to break thecurse.
It wasdone.
The sun was already setting, so Rolfe hastened back to thepalace.
He strode through the gates as soon as they opened and turned his steps toward the stables. He had not seen Annelise in the garden and he wished to greet her fully dressed this time. There was a bath awaiting him in the stables, yet another reminder that the palace served hiswhim.
The water was hot and he welcomed the sense of being clean again. He wished he had not left his clothes and the cloak in the bed chamber, only to see that they were folded and clean, waiting on the bench with his mail and armor. He dressed with satisfaction, taking a moment to rub his destrier’s nose and talk to the great beast. Judging by the position of the saddle and the gleam of Mephistopheles’ coat, Annelise had ridden him againtoday.
The horses had plenty of food and water, and he noted the presence of a second palfrey stabled with the first. She was a pretty mare and friendly, the healing wound on her flank telling him of heridentity.
Rolfe left the stables with purpose, wondering what his inquisitive wife might have found. He pulled up his hood as he walked, hoping he would not have to hide from her muchlonger.
* * *
Perhaps some puzzlesdid not have akey.
Annelise returned to the palace, exhausted and discouraged after another fruitless hunt. She had ridden the destrier again because he seemed to expect it, but she had not addressed the horse by name. The sun was setting and she expected that her husband would appear soon. She hurried to the chamber, hoping there might be a bath waiting forher.
But there was a book on the low table, one that had not been therebefore.
Annelise stood on the threshold of the chamber where she found her meals thrice a day and eyed the massivevolume.
No, it had not been there before. She would have remembered a book of such splendor. Even the nuns had possessed few so wondrous as thisone.
The book was bound in dark green leather and adorned with elaborate gold filigree. On closer inspection, she realized it was more lavish than any book she had ever examinedbefore.
But books, particularly weighty ones, did not simply appear out of thinair.
Of course, many other things did in thispalace.
Annelise crossed the chamber and tried to pick it up. It was a heavy tome, as thick as her hand was wide, and layered with dust. It was large, as well, its height more than the distance from her elbow to her fingertips. She blew the dust off the cover and sneezed as the resulting cloud envelopedher.
She opened the book cautiously, then grimaced. Its contents were inscribed in a beautiful but unfamiliar script. She could not readit.
Who could readit?
Was this the script of the infidels? Annelise had no way of knowing for certain. She might have had a moment’s uncertainty, but she already knew that her husband was no infidel. He had ridden to Outremer on crusade, with the insignia of the King of France on his standard. He was as Christian as she—perhaps more so, if the opinion of the nuns wassolicited.
Had the lady who had given him the palace been aninfidel?
There was an interesting notion and just cause by every law in the land for him to have dispatched the lady as a foe. Annelise hoped he had not done as much, all the same. Were knights not sworn to defend women andchildren?
She frowned and closed the book, hearing his step behind her in thecourtyard.
