The Spymaster's Protection (12 page)

Lucien gave Gabrielle’s husband a derisive snort.

Standing beside his misbegotten comrade, her father spoke up
finally. “You cannot defy your husband, daughter. You will do as he says and
return with us to Kerak. If it pleases you, you may stay with me at Montreal.”

Gabrielle laughed bitterly. “Nothing about you has ever
pleased me,
father
!” she spat. “You tormented my mother until she took
her own life, then sold me into marriage for the opportunity to grow rich
alongside your contemptible friend. I would be no safer at Montreal with you,
than I would be at Kerak with him and Silvia.”

Armand Chaumont went rigid with anger. “You will do as I say,
daughter! I am your father, and you
will
listen to me!”

“You are my father in nothing but name,” she rebutted
contemptuously. “I will remain here, in Jerusalem.”

Lucien tucked her more securely behind him as Reynald stepped
toward her again. “With what and where, dear wife?” he taunted sarcastically,
inches from the Templar’s face. “This is my house, and I have let you live here
by my grace alone.”

“You have no grace,” Gabrielle sneered boldly, briefly placing
her hand on Lucien de Aubric’s muscular shoulder.

“Nevertheless, you and all your heathen servants will vacate
this residence immediately. There will be no money forthcoming, either. I offer
you only the choice of coming to Kerak with me or being thrown onto the streets
like a common whore.”

“I do not need your money any longer,” she declared, enjoying
the surprise that crossed the faces of her father and husband. “Mother left me
things you never knew about, father. Things she hid from you, for me. It will
be enough to seek another residence.”

Reynald considered that for a moment, then challenged. “You
will not be allowed to defy me. A wife must obey her husband.”

“Not when he threatens her life,” Lucien interceded with
uncompromising resolve. “I found one of your guards, Reynald. He lived just
long enough to implicate you in the attempt on your wife’s life. Actually, he
identified Lady Silvia as the person who actually hired last night’s assailant.
Unfortunately, the king did not get to hear your guardsman’s dying testimony,
but the patriarch did. He has given Lady Gabrielle the right to seek sanctuary
at the Hospitaller commandery. She may stay at the convent there and continue
to work at the orphanage. I will remain here until she and her staff have
packed all their belongings. You and Armand will leave…now, I think.”

“You bastard!” Reynald hissed, glaring murderously at him.
“You will not get away with setting her up in some kind of sanctuary for
wayward wives. Nor will this be the last time you and I meet over this.”

“I’m counting on that,” Lucien responded, his dark face as
unrelenting as his implied promise. Amazingly his clenched fists were the only
visible indication of his anger.

“It is high time de Ridefort curb your damnable independence.”

Lucien laughed. “He can only try.”

Reynald glared at his errant wife. “I am not done with you
yet, either, woman.”

The insolent humor vanished from Lucien’s dark countenance.
“You are done with her, Reynald!” he growled, crowding him into the doorway.
“Leave while you still can.”

To Gabrielle’s surprise, Reynald only laughed. “By the Rood,
you are an outrageous bastard, de Aubric!”

“So I am,” he snarled, a black smile curling one corner of his
mouth.

Gabrielle’s husband, then her father backed out of her room,
onto the landing. Without looking back both men headed down the stairway.

From the railing, Lucien watched the two exit through the big
oak front door downstairs. When they were gone, he turned to Gabrielle, Hazir,
and his daughter, Sadhira, who were all standing behind to him. “Thank you, for
sending for me, Hazir. I only wish I could have gotten here a little sooner,”
he added as he looked from the Muslim to Gabrielle.

Her cheek was red and she was holding her upper arm,
unsuccessfully hiding the tremors that shook her slender frame. “Sadhira, do
you have rosemary oil in the house and a cloth with a basin of cool water.
Maybe a flask of wine, as well.”

“I will gather them for you,” the olive skinned woman said
with a smile to her mistress. “Father, aid me, please.”

Hazir looked to the Templar. “Brother Lucien, you have done my
friend a great favor today,” he said with a fond look toward Gabrielle. “I have
known this courageous woman many years, and this is the first time she has had
a real chance to be free of Reynald de Châtillon. Thank you.”

“Aye, frère, thank you.” Gabrielle echoed Hazir’s words.
Suddenly feeling the full impact of the morning’s events, she swayed a little,
feeling disturbingly dizzy in the aftermath of her confrontation with Reynald.

“Mi’lady, go sit down before you fall down,” Lucien directed
with a nod in the direction of her room. When she did, he followed her inside.
Once she was seated in a chair by her window, he took her wrist, lifted the arm
she was holding, and raised the long loose sleeve of her robe. Above her elbow,
her skin was purpling with ugly bruise marks that matched a man’s hand print.

Against her soft, golden, unblemished skin, the evidence of Reynald’s
brutality sent fresh waves of rage through Lucien. This woman was so fine; the
bastard should be castrated for treating her with such violence. And her father
merited the same punishment for delivering her into the hands of such a man,
then standing aside while the whoreson brutalized her. He recalled what she had
said about Armand being responsible for her mother’s death, but he did not want
to bring it up now. She had endured enough emotional battering.

When Sadhira returned with the rosemary oil, she handed it to
Lucien then left again for the basin of water and the wine. Lucien poured some
of the scented oil into his palms, rubbed them together to warm it, them
smoothed it over Gabrielle’s skin.

Growing calmer and more relaxed with each soothing stroke of
his long brown fingers, Gabrielle sighed and closed her eyes. No man had ever
shown her such gentle care; such tenderness. She was already awestruck by what
he had done for her and how he had stood up to Reynald and her father. When she
opened her eyes and stared up at him, she couldn’t hide the candid admiration
in them.

“Did you really find one of the guards?”

He smiled down at her as he continued to gently massage her
arm, from wrist to shoulder. “I did.”

“And the patriarch? Was he truly with you?”

“I summoned him because I needed him in particular. He heard
the guard’s final words against Lady Silvia, and afterwards, he agreed to allow
you to seek sanctuary at the Hospital.”

“That was your suggestion?” she asked in breathless amazement.

“You needed protection from Reynald, quickly. I may have
disposed of one assassin, but there will undoubtedly be others. If indeed they
are fida’i, as I suspect, they will continue until successful or the contract
is withdrawn, ” he warned her gravely, not wanting to lie to her. “Because of
Reynald’s close association with the Grand Master, you would not have been safe
at the Temple convent. De Ridefort would never have allowed you sanctuary.
Brother Giles knows all of this, and has assured me you will be accepted and
protected at their headquarters. I am still uneasy, though. Your husband is a
resourceful man, and many are afraid of him.”

In spite of the horror at knowing the dreaded fida’i were
after her, Gabrielle smiled at him, knowing she should not embarrass him with
her adoration, but unable to quell it. “You are not.”

Lucien shook his head. “Unfortunately, I cannot be with you
all the time.”

Gabrielle wondered at his choice of words.
Unfortunately?
My, but that was something to ponder on later!

“I did not say this in front of your husband,” he continued,
finally releasing her wrist. “But the patriarch is willing to give you an
annulment, if you wish it. I believe it will be the best way to ensure your
safety. If you give Reynald what he wants, he will have no reason to be rid of
you by other means.”

“But the patriarch has never wanted to grant Reynald an
annulment.”

“True, but he will seek one for
you
, especially now
that he knows your life is in danger.”

“He believed that Reynald tried to have me murdered?”

“Nay. He believed Lady Silvia did. He is afraid to accuse
Reynald of anything,” Lucien told her in disgust. “The man cannot afford
Reynald’s political disfavor. He has too much influence with the king.”

“Will Lady Silvia be charged or brought before the
magistrate?”

“Not likely. She has Reynald’s protection.”

Another smile hovered on Gabrielle’s lips. “And I have yours,”
she murmured. “’Tis I who have the better bargain, I think, Brother Lucien.”

God help him! Whenever she spoke his name, he couldn’t take
his eyes from her lips. One of these days, he would dearly love to kiss those
lips as she said his name! And if she didn’t stop looking at him with those big
blue eyes so full of wonder and appreciation, he was going to be forced to
leave the room. As it was, he shifted position to hide his very physical
reaction to her.

“I am sorry you have to leave your home, lady,” he said as he
took a step back from her.

Gabrielle shrugged. “It is probably for the best. Now Reynald
will have no hold over me. I do regret being unable to continue to employ Hazir
and Sadhira, though. They have become family to me.”

Lucien nodded as Hazir and his daughter came into the room
with the flask of wine, two goblets, and a basin of cool water. “Do not worry
about us, mistress,” Hazir commented. “Sadhira and I will simply move back
home. And do not fret that we will abandon you. We will keep a close eye on
you. I have ample family to watch over you and keep Brother Lucien informed of
your continued safety.”

Tears glittered in Gabrielle’s eyes as she rose out of her
chair and went to her old friend to embrace him in a fond hug that lasted for
several long moments and a lot of suspicious sniffling.

When she stepped away from the old man, Lucien handed her a
goblet of wine, then poured some for himself. “To your freedom and safety,
mi’lady,” he said with a lift of his cup.

“And to your brave support, frère,” she replied, lifting her
cup in turn. There was so much more she would have liked to say to him. They
stared at each other in mute contemplation until the silence became
uncomfortable, then Lucien drained his wine and smiled.

“I will await you downstairs. There is no hurry. Pack all that
you need and want. I will have Hazir arrange for a small wagon, then I will
take you to the Hospital.”

Gabrielle nodded, too overwhelmed by the man in front of her
to trust herself to say anything more. What she felt for him at the moment was
much too intense and intimate to put into words anyway. And since he was still
very much a monk, it probably should never be said.

CHAPTER
7

Gabrielle sighed as she sank tiredly
onto the straw-filled pallet atop her bunk. The room she had been given at the
convent of Saint Mary was little more than a cell. The nuns that resided here
lived as simply and austerely as the monks of Saint John. There were no
amenities. Her room reflected that. It was furnished for utilitarian purposes,
with a single bunk, a chest for clothes, a chair and table for writing, and a
small brazier for cold nights. Her only luxuries were her feather filled
pillow, linen sheets, and quilted silk counterpane that Hazir had insisted she
take.

She had given up much when she had
accepted the sanctuary of the Hospitallers. Except for her clothes, her
mother’s things, her bible, and a few other precious books, she had taken
nothing from Reynald’s house. But the things she’d left behind were material
things; luxuries that she could learn to do without, especially if giving them
up brought her safety, peace of mind, and freedom from Reynald. She would be a
liar, though, if she did not admit she missed some of her previous comforts.
Still, none of them had ever compensated for the misery of living with her
father and her husband.

Dear Lord, how she wanted to be
legally free of Reynald! It had been a sennight since she had last seen him. He
had come to the commandery, demanding to see her. No doubt he had wanted to
test the church protection of sanctuary she hid behind. Brother Giles had stood
beside her, along with a Hospitaller priest and several sergeants, when she had
granted Reynald a brief meeting. Reynald had clearly seen that it would take an
armed fight to get her out of the complex.

Gabrielle was exceedingly grateful
for the staunch support that the brothers of the Hospital had given her.
Brother Giles had also told her that Brother Lucien could be sent for, if
needed. But his presence had not yet been needed. Reynald had tested the
strength of her protection, and left after much grumbling and posturing. He and
the Hospitallers had never gotten along, at any rate. They were not as
fanatically war-minded as the Templars. Nor were they of a similar political
mind.

Since then Gabrielle had not heard
from Reynald, though her father had come by a few nights later to plead
Reynald’s case once more. Again he had proposed that she go with him to
Montreal. He had tried to sympathize with her about Silvia, telling her that he
understood her humiliation and anger over being in the same abode as Reynald’s
mistress.

Gabrielle knew her perfidious father
too well to be taken in by his false concern. He may wish her to remain married
to Reynald, but only because it benefited him. In all her years with Reynald,
her father had never once aided her against his brutality or depravity. When he
had seen her bruised and in pain after one of Reynald’s assaults, he had never
lifted a hand to protect her or even to comfort her. She meant nothing to him,
just as her mother had meant nothing to him. Though Gabrielle held no love for
her father, it grieved her to think he would condone and maybe even participate
in her murder. But what did she matter to either of them anymore? Reynald had
his land, a base from which to rebuild his power and expand his wealth. Armand
had renewed his alliance with his old comrade-in-arms, and become rich from all
their raiding. Only she had suffered by the arrangement.