A Knight to Remember Read Online Free

“As prioress, it is my duty to protect the abbess from undue aggravation, and you, Lady Edlyn, have proved to be nothing but a disappointment.”
    “Lady Corliss said that to you?” Edlyn didn’t believe it, but even the suggestion hurt. Hurt because she knew it was true. She’d struggled this last year, building on her natural talent to become a competent herbalist and to be of use to the abbey. But always she knew she took another’s place, and that added to the misery that crept on silent feet into her barren bedchamber every night.
    Lady Blanche had struck a telling blow, and she followed it with a stab to the heart. “Lady Corliss is too kind.”
    This day, Edlyn decided, could not improve enough to become bearable.
    Wrapped in triumph, Lady Blanche trotted back up the walk and out the gate.
    Edlyn glanced at the dispensary and prayed the two men hadn’t heard the bitter exchange. Hugh would want to know everything about her situation, and she didn’t intend to explain. Not now. Not ever.
    Stiffening her spine, she reentered the dispensary and halted in surprise. Hugh had disappeared, as had Wharton and all traces of armor. Edlyn blinked. Had worry and distress finally snapped her hard-fought hold on sanity? Had there been no wounded knight, no threatening servant?
    But nay, the bottle of spring tonic remained open on the table, and a bloody rag had been shoved behind the wooden boxes where she stored her dried herbs. The table by the oven had been moved along the wall,and the mat had disappeared. Looking closely, she saw the marks on the floor where Wharton had dragged the pallet with Hugh’s body weighing it down.
    In a flurry of activity, the men had done as she suggested and moved to the best hiding place in the room.
    “At least someone is showing good sense,” she said as she swept toward the oven.
    “To whom are you speaking?”
    With a squeak, Edlyn turned to the door. At first she believed Lady Blanche had returned. Then the short figure moved into the room, and Edlyn saw the branches piled high in her arms.
    Adda. She’d forgotten about Adda. How foolish of her to think she had routed Lady Blanche when she’d only repelled the first guard.
    “I was speaking to myself,” Edlyn said.
    “Ah.” The one syllable rang rich with significance. Adda thought Edlyn touched.
    “Let me take the wood,” Edlyn said.
    Adda swung it away from Edlyn’s reaching arms. “Where do you want it?”
    The woodpile stood in front of Hugh’s hiding place, and the logs, as Wharton had observed, had dwindled down to almost nothing. “Right here in front of the oven,” Edlyn instructed.
    Adda’s gaze swept the area, then she walked forward until Edlyn gave way. “Don’t!” Edlyn said sharply, sure Adda’s nosiness would earn her the point of Wharton’s blade.
    Dropping the branches atop the measly twigs that marked the woodpile, Adda said, “Don’t, indeed. You’ve made an incredible mess of the dispensary, and Lady Corliss will hear of it.”
    Frightened and incredulous, Edlyn stared into the corner. Her basket of rags had been dumped. The ragshad been arranged to look like clutter, and the upended wicker covered more than one questionable lump.
    Quick thinking on someone’s part. It wouldn’t fool anyone with the eyes to see, but Adda shared everything with her sister, including myopia.
    Edlyn used the edge of her wimple to dab an out-break of sweat on her forehead, but she wasn’t about to allow this toxic imitation of Lady Blanche to reprimand her. “My dispensary is none of your concern, but you make it so, no doubt, so that I will release the syrup of poppies to your care. It will not happen, so return to your mistress and report your failure.”
    Adda leaned forward until her nose almost met Edlyn’s skirt. “You have blood on your apron.”
    Edlyn glanced down. Blood did indeed stain the apron she wore to protect her thin wool cotte, and she brushed at the marks futilely. “I went to the