The Sorceror's Revenge Read Free

Robert?’
                  ‘No.  It is my wish to leave but I do not hate him.  Once I thought I should be happy if he died in battle, but when he was close to death I prayed that he might live.’
                  ‘You could not wish another man’s death,’ Jonathan said, gazing at her with love in his eyes.  ‘Robert will listen to me when the time is right – but the news I bring him is not good.’
                  ‘You went to Winchester in search of the child?’
                  ‘Robert told you of his hopes that she might be there?’  Rhoda nodded.  ‘He thought that there might be good news but it could not be worse.  The woman has fled taking the child with her – and there was a dead man in the house.  By the time the body was found it had bloated and begun to decay, but they think it was Todd Carpenter – the woman’s brother.’
                  ‘She killed her brother and ran away?’
                  ‘There was another man living with her, a leather worker by trade.  He called himself Will Hern but who knows if it is his true name. They say the carpenter was struck a blow that split his head open from behind.  It would take a man’s strength to do that but there is more to the story.’ 
    Jonathan explained that the carpenter had been accused of murder and fled himself, and that the leather worker had come to live there after he had been gone some weeks.  ‘Perhaps he resented that his sister took another man into his house.  No one knows the truth but it means that the woman and child have disappeared once more.’
                  ‘That will be a disappointment to Robert but you must tell him.  He is fretting and has asked for you twice this morning already.’
                  ‘I shall go up to him.’ Jonathan touched her hand.  ‘Do not look so anxious, my love.  I am certain that Robert will let you go when he realises you are unhappy.  He may demand that we live abroad but I shall not mind that…shall you?’
                  ‘I believe I should like it very much.’  Rhoda smiled for him, though she had a feeling that a dark shadow hovered at her shoulder.  ‘Robert is waiting for you.’
                  Leaving him to visit her husband, Rhoda went to her chamber.  She sent Joanne for the child and when he was brought to her, she held him in her arms.  When the pain was so terrible she had sworn that she would never bear another child but it would be happiness indeed to hold Jonathan’s son.  She smiled and touched her son’s tiny hand.  He was perfect and in her new mellow mood she had begun to care for her babe.
                  Would Robert let her take the child with her?  Before the babe was born, she had considered leaving him behind without a qualm but now it made her sad to think that she might have to choose.
     
    * * *
     
    ‘You think that the child Nicholas Malvern claims is his could be yours and Melloria’s?’  Jonathan frowned when told of the Abbess’s letter.  ‘What of the child in Winchester?’
                  ‘I am not certain but I think Melloria may have given birth to twins.  One was stolen by the woman Marta and the other remained at Malvern House.’
                  ‘What makes you think there were two children?’
                  ‘Melloria grew very big in the last months of her time.  She believed she was so big because she carried a son. However, it could mean that she was carrying two babes in her womb – and both of them daughters.’
                  ‘You must investigate Mother Abbess’s claims, Robert.  Do you wish me to go in your stead and make inquiries?’
                  ‘No,’ Robert reflected for a moment.  ‘Had I not been struck down by a fever I should have left before you returned, but I was uneasy at