Love Everlasting Read Free Page B

“I
am so sorry. You were hoping for someone younger and vigorous,
weren’t you?”
    “It doesn’t matter.” Julianna hoped Lord
Royce really was an old man - so old and so infirm that he was
incapable of forcing his attentions on her very often. But she had
just spoken the truth; Royce’s age didn’t matter at all. They
wouldn’t be married for long. If they ever were married.
    He was King Henry’s spymaster. Julianna
fought the urge to burst into wild laughter. Why hadn’t she known?
How long would it take before Royce of Wortham discovered who she
was, and what she had done? Contemplating her recent actions, what
she had agreed to do in the future, and the identity of her
husband-to-be, Julianna foresaw her own imminent death.

Chapter 2
     
     
    The Royal Fortress at Caen
    King Henry’s apartments.
     
    Never, not in his darkest hour, would Royce
ever curse his liege lord, yet he could not deny to himself that he
was greatly angered by the arbitrary arrangements that King Henry
had made for him. Furthermore, he was alarmed and puzzled by
Henry’s private remarks before Royce met his bride-to-be.
    “I fear,” Henry confided, “that Julianna may
have been involved in some way with Deane of Craydon’s work as a
secret agent for King Louis of France. It is possible that she
aided his work, especially during Deane’s last illness, when he was
too sick to continue his activities on Louis’s behalf.”
    “So, you think she could have done his spying
for him, for a time at least?” Royce frowned, recalling his
conversation with Cadwallon on the subject of Deane of Craydon.
    Royce entertained no doubts about Deane’s
subversive actions. The late baron of Craydon had been a spy for
most of his adult life. Yet Royce’s people, who kept a close watch
on Deane, had never unearthed any evidence that implicated he man’s
wife. If Lady Julianna really had been working for the French,
she’d been damnably clever about it. Royce made a silent note to
himself to have his agents reinvestigate the lady immediately, and
much more thoroughly.
    “Whatever Julianna’s secret activities have
been in the past, or still are, I want you to put an end to them,”
King Henry said. “You must do it without a scandal, Royce.
    “The situation with the French king has
altered while you were gone from court. Matters are even more
irksome than usual,” the king explained. “Too many noblemen hold
estates in French territory, as well as in England or here in
Normandy. As a result, their loyalties are often divided.
    “We have discussed this in the past, I know,
but just now I am walking a delicate line with those nobles. I
cannot risk driving any more of them into Louis’s camp, which is
what will happen if I declare Julianna a traitor and confiscate her
lands. Rather than chance the same thing being done to them, at
least a dozen men that I could mention, and possibly more, will
renounce their oaths to me and swear fidelity to Louis instead,
trusting in his promise to restore their forfeited lands after he
has defeated me in battle. It has happened before.” He paused,
apparently musing on past failures of his policy and successes of
the French king.
    “I understand, my lord.” Royce took a long
breath in an attempt to settle his thoughts. If he could prove
Julianna guilty of working for King Louis, he could stop her quite
simply, by locking her away in one of his many strongholds and
keeping her confined there, allowing her no contact with the
outside world. He would administer her lands properly and send all
due taxes to the royal treasury on time. King Henry would be
pleased by his spymaster’s discreet handling of yet another problem
that he didn’t want made public. This particular problem, and its
secret solution, was only what Royce had come to expect after years
of working for King Henry.
    What he did not expect was his peculiar
reaction to Lady Julianna of Louvain when the king sent for her to
appear in his