Melissande was knee-deep in the water, watching Arnaud warily as her breath came quickly.Curse the woman, she was standing between Quinn and his target, ensuring that his shot was not clear.
“Join me,” Arnaud invited, his sword pointed now at her.
“Never,” she said with welcome heat.“Your scheme has failed, Arnaud.Quinn saw the truth of Gaultier’s deception, but I am the one who guessed that your true target was my lord husband.I will never aid you in attacking Quinn.”Now Melissande’s tone was hard.
“How sad that you make this choice,” he murmured.
“Just as you make yours.Recall your knightly vows, Arnaud, and lower your blade.”
“And is it a choice when a man must act against his own desire to survive?”Arnaud asked.
“You survived well enough.”
“Survived?”Arnaud cried.“After Tulley seized Privas, I starved.After Tulley took every denier of my legacy, I had naught, not even a steed.I would have died if I had not had my wits.Even then, he spread poisonous lies about my nature, spilling them into every listening ear.I had to go far, nigh all the way to Paris, then come back slowly and with stealth.”
“You did not have to come back at all.”
“Privas is my legacy.”
“Not when Tulley holds the seal.”
“And I will hold it again,” Arnaud snarled.
“Marie de Perricault was useful, then.”
“She was rich and had a title.”His tone was gloating.“And she admired me greatly, a sign of her exquisite taste.”
“Sadly, she was wedded.”
He smiled.“Not for long.”
“I thought she had another suitor, Gaultier de Lonvaux.”
“He was too young to appreciate her advantages.I lured him away from her with tales of Annossy and your beauty, my Melissande.”
“Mine!”
Arnaud winced.“Marie, sad as it may be, was no beauty, although she had her passions.”
“You speak of your lady wife as if she is no longer of this world.”
Quinn could not believe that Melissande was speaking at such length with this villain—and then he realized that she must know of his presence.She must be ensuring that he learned the full extent of Arnaud’s crimes.
She must guess that he would strike, and she wanted Quinn to have no doubts.
Zounds, but his lady wife knew him well.
“She might not be,” Arnaud said.“I will be a widower before the sun sets this day.I might be one already.”
“I do not understand.”
“Marie was very fond of her wine.When I left Perricault three days ago, I left an allotment for her from my personal store.Quite special wine.You will appreciate that when I tell you it is from Annossy.I opened it to ensure its quality for my lady wife, then added an herbal augmentation for her pleasure.”
“Poison,” Melissande whispered.“Is that how her husband died?”
Arnaud laughed.“His time had come, unfortunately.”
“But surely a physician will treat her?”
