“’Tis my mother, Jules. And you have already met her.”
That was all he would say. But it was so like Phillip to want to remain cryptic. Julianna didn’t care much about anything but Nicholas. She had to find a way to escape Phillip, yet again. Escape and find Nicholas. To do that, she had to first stay alive. She did what he ordered, gained a horse without any help from his men, and was ready to leave when he was.
She had her ring. She had her ring! As soon as he couldn’t see her…she smiled and breathed. First chance she got. First chance, and she would make him sorry!
About a quarter of the way to Alnwick, two of Phillip’s men pushed her off to the side of the road. She didn’t know what they wanted, to grope or fondle her, or worse. She wasn’t about to find out. She stuck the fang in her ring into one man’s face and into the other’s bare hand.
They both fell almost instantly. When they did, Phillip was there watching.
He looked worried.
So did she.
She had no more poison. She hadn’t wanted to use the last of it on Phillip’s men. She wanted to use it on Phillip! Her only consolation was that he was still afraid of her. Perhaps more now than before. She had no weapons. He’d made certain of that. He hadn’t checked her adornments and he hadn’t seen her lift her ring. So how was she still knocking his men unconscious? She dropped her ring in the grass. By now, there was no more poison left on the fang so the ring was useless.
“I do not know what befell them, my lord,” she said, feigning innocence, and doing so rather poorly. “They tried to touch me and they just dropped dead from their horses.”
He stared at her with fear marring his brow. “Devil!”
She shook her head and looked up.
“You tempt me to increase my cruelty toward you,” he warned her when she rode back to him.
“You were born cruel, Phillip. I had nothing to do with it.”
“Oh,” he said just before she rode away, “but you did, Julianna. You had everything to do with it.”
“What?” she laughed and rode at an even pace at his side, just out of his reach. “What are you accusing me of now, Phillip?”
“I’m saying you took my place at my mother’s breast, while I was given to a cold bitch who hated me for being the product of a love affair between her husband and a servant.”
Julianna took a moment to take in what he was saying. What? She took his place…his mother?
“Since her own birth brought forth a dead babe, Claudia DeAvoy was able to nurse me and pretend I was the babe she had given birth to when, in fact, I was not.”
No! Nooooooooooo! Chills ran through her. She took his place…she blinked. Berengaria! No! Julianna shook her head.
Phillip nodded. His smile was charged with cruelty and satisfaction. “Aye. I am the son of a scullery maid named Berengaria.”
It was as if he pulled out his sword and rammed it through Julianna’s middle. Berengaria.HerBerengaria was Phillip’s mother? It couldn’t be! She gripped her belly as an ache flooded through her. It threatened to knock her from her mount. She and Phillip were the same age. Claudia and Berengaria were with child at the same time, by the same man.
Julianna leaped off her horse, ran to the side of the road, and expelled the bit of water she’d had earlier.
Berengaria had been forced to give up her son and nurse someone else’s child. Oh, poor, poor Berengaria. Julianna choked on her tears rather than shed them in Phillip’s presence. And Nicholas! What would he think of the woman he had loved as a mother being the mother of his mortal enemy? She wanted to weep at the terrible tragedy of it all. She wiped her mouth instead and went back to her horse.
“Did Berengaria leave us to go back to you?” she asked him quietly. She truly didn’t want to know.
Phillip smiled at her as if she were the most pitiful fool. “No, Jules. Claudia had her arrested soon after my father died. You see, ’twas he who had kept Berengaria safe in Berwick. He never stopped caring for her, I believe.”
“Arrested?” she echoed in a hollowed voice.
“Aye,” he answered calmly, as if they were discussing how the sun rose. “And thrown into the pit.”
Julianna’s eyes widened. The tears that threatened a few moments ago now filled her eyes and fell from their heavy weight. “What was her crime?”
“Sleeping with my father.” He laughed shortly. “It cost her everything.”
“When? When did you find out she was your mother?”
