The Sorceror's Revenge Read Free Page A

leaving Rhoda and the boy alone.  It will ease my mind to know that you are here to protect them.  You must know that there is no one in the world I trust as I trust you, Jonathan?’
                  ‘Yes…’ Jonathan could not meet his eyes.  It sat ill with his conscience to speak like this with the man he called his blood brother and not confess that he loved Rhoda and meant to take her from Robert if he could.  ‘You may trust me to defend her and your son with my life.’
                  ‘Yes, I know that…’ Robert was silent for some moments, then, in a tone heavy with meaning,  ‘We must talk about many things, Jonathan, but not until my return.  I know something needs to change…’
                  ‘You are not thinking of making the journey yourself yet?’
                  ‘I shall go in a day or so,’ Robert said.  ‘The balm Rhoda made for my shoulder seems to have worked better than anything else I used.  I may have misjudged her for I did not think she was interested in such things.’               ‘I believe she is capable of much that you might not expect, Robert.’
                  ‘Yes, I know you love her well.’  A wry smile touched his mouth, as Jonathan looked uncomfortable.  ‘If it were any other man I would think the worst – but we must speak of these things another time.  I need to rest if I am to leave for the north in a few days…’
     
     
     
     
     
    2
     
    ‘I think that I should like to watch you as you work,’ Anne said as Nicholas rose from the table after eating the food she had prepared that morning.  ‘I have said nothing before this, because your knowledge greatly surpasses mine, but I believe I may have some knowledge of these things.  I know how to make cures and how to treat various illnesses.  I should like to help you in your work, if I could?’
                  ‘Yes, I thought you might,’ Nicholas replied, his expression thoughtful as he looked at the woman who believed herself his wife.  She was his wife in every way that mattered!  Had he husband cared for her he would never have abandoned her, and yet guilt struck deep into Nicholas’s heart every time he looked into her trusting eyes.  ‘I have sensed that you were remembering more of late, Anne.  Is there anything you wish to tell me?’
                  ‘No. I regret that I still cannot remember our past life together, Nicholas.  Perhaps you will tell me how we met one day?  It might help me to piece the puzzle together.  I believe I remember something of my childhood.  I had a sister called Beatrice and I think she became a nun.  I seem to remember that my mother wept when my father took her to the convent.  She felt that her eldest daughter was lost to her.’
                  Nicholas held his breath, and heard the faint echoes of laughter.  He banished them, as he had learned to do, and, since the book of the black arts was burned the laughter troubled him less and less.  He felt more himself again, and his only fears were for Anne and the constant worry that he might lose her.
                  ‘Do you remember your sister, Anne?’
                  ‘Vaguely.  I remember running in a sunlit meadow with a girl I believe was my sister.  If she left to live in a convent when I was young, I would not have seen her often after that day.’
                  ‘And yet you still remember nothing more of your life before…you came here?’
                  ‘Nothing.  I remember that I like to embroider and I am skilful at it.  I know that I can preserve fruit and salt meat, and I know about herbs.  I have seen many herbs in your study and I know the uses of most, though not all for some are strange to me.  I read and understand Latin and French and I have studied mathematics and sciences I think, though it