The Fifth Knight(103)

A loud knock came from the door.

Both started and held each other’s petrified gaze.

Amélie found her voice first. “Who is it?”

“It is I, Edward, with Sir Palmer. You need to unlock the door.”

“A moment, Brother,” said Amélie, “and we’ll let you in. But be warned. Something terrible has happened.”





CHAPTER 27

“What in God’s name has taken place here?” Edward’s horrified question stopped him short in the half-open doorway.

Behind the monk, Palmer craned to look over Edward’s shoulder to the room beyond. The unmistakable meaty, iron-tinged smell of fresh blood met his nostrils. Terror prickled through him. “Edward, what’s happened?”

“See for yourself.” The monk stepped into the room with Palmer close behind. “God in heaven,” continued Edward. “It’s Fitzurse.”

“Fitzurse?” Palmer’s repeating of the name meant nothing. His only care was for Theodosia.

Thank the Almighty. She stood in the room, clung to her mother, both women ashen-faced. At their feet lay the still body of Fitzurse. Flat on his back, with his arms flung out on either side, blood pooled beneath him from his injured hands and abdomen. His face was a blistered mess.

Palmer raised his gaze back to Theodosia’s. Her gray eyes held the horror of one who has taken a life for the first time.

“Are you all right?” His own feeble question annoyed him.

Theodosia’s colorless lips tried to form words, but none emerged.

Amélie replied instead. “We’re not harmed, if that’s what you mean.”

“Thank the Lord for something,” said Edward. “But how has Fitzurse come to this terrible end?” He addressed Theodosia. “You told me he’d died.”

“I was there, too, Brother,” said Palmer. “I would have sworn on my own life he’d been killed.”

Theodosia swallowed and managed a low whisper. “He said le Bret’s body had protected him in the rock fall. Then he tracked us down, and I murdered him with his sword.” Her voice broke, and silent tears streamed down her cheeks.

“But his face?” Edward’s mouth drew down in disgust.

Theodosia swallowed again. “He was about to…to cut Mama’s head off. I had to stop him. Br-brother Paulus had left a bucket of lye for the floor.”

Palmer could kiss her for her quick wits, quick as his — nay, quicker — in this deed. And what a great deed.

But Edward crossed himself, his green eyes stern. “You have committed a mortal sin, Sister. Your soul is in terrible peril. It’s vital you make your confession. At once.”

She nodded but still held her mother tight. “He was trying to kill us. I had to act.”

“Couldn’t you have tried to reason with him?” said Edward.

“Even if it meant revealing your secret?” Palmer asked his question of Amélie.

Amélie’s mouth hardened into a thin line. “Theodosia tried. Told him all about Henry. But he knew already. He wasn’t sent by my Henry. He was sent by that she-wolf he’s supposedly married to.”

“Eleanor?” said Edward.

“She’d only recently found out about my daughter and me,” said Amélie. She locked her gaze on Palmer. “Four knights to act on her behalf, and the fifth as her champion.”

Edward gave an angry exclamation and turned to Palmer.

Heat rose in Palmer’s face. “You don’t think I — ”

“No, we don’t,” said Theodosia. “Fitzurse told us you knew nothing of the true mission.”

“What else did he reveal?” said Edward, his eye still on Palmer.

“Only that Eleanor plots against the King,” said Amélie, “and is using Becket’s murder to turn the whole country against him.”

Edward let out a long, long breath. “Then the Lord be praised we’ll be with the King soon, and can tell him the truth about the sins and crimes committed in his name.” He wrinkled his nose at Fitzurse’s corpse. “I’ll fetch Brother Paulus. We need this dealt with, and dealt with swiftly.” He hurried out to the landing. “Paulus! Get up here at once!”

“Theodosia, you did what had to be done,” said Palmer, keen to give her some scrap of comfort. “No one could blame you for your actions.”

Theodosia looked down at the body and shuddered in revulsion. “God will. Brother Edward’s right. I have committed a mortal sin. I have condemned my soul to eternal damnation.” She wrung her hands in anguish. “I am the worst kind of sinner. I have to confess. At once. And penance, I have to do penance. For months. No, years.”