[Roger the Chapman 04] - The Holy Innocents Read Online Free Page B

hovel, but I've been used to better things' Her tone was mocking, but also slightly bitter.
    I replied gently: 'This is no hovel, believe me I know. I've seen plenty on my travels.'
    She made no answer, going to the door and looking out while I drank my second cup of ale. Seen in profile, she looked a little older than she did when face to face; but she was a handsome creature, for all that. I experienced the familiar stirring of attraction, but hastily suppressed it. I was too recently a widower to bed another woman, and felt that it would be a betrayal of Lillis's memory to do so too soon.
    Self-enforced continence was a sop to my conscience, but it did not prevent me from wanting Grizelda Harbourne.
    Becoming aware of my scrutiny, she half-turned her head to look at me. After a moment, she came back to the table, smiling faintly, as though she had guessed my thoughts.
    'I have to thank you, Chapman,' she said.
    I shook my head. 'I've done nothing,' I protested. 'I would have done more, had you allowed me to have my way. I would have had Innes Woodsman in custody by now, in the castle gaol.'
    'I didn't mean that.' She fidgeted with the fringed ends of the leather girdle about her waist. 'I know I must have said I things which have aroused your curiosity, but you have curbed the desire to ask questions, and it's for that that I'm grateful.
    Mine has not been an easy life. There have been events...' Here, her voice became suspended by emotion, and it was a while before she was able to go on. But at last, she had sufficient command over herself to continue, 'There have been events which I find it too painful to discuss. And recent months have been the blackest of all.'
    She had grown extremely pale, and for a moment, I was afraid that she might faint. I rose quickly to my feet, ready to support her if she fell, but my assistance was unnecessary.
    She recovered herself almost immediately, blushing for her weakness. As the tide of colour surged up beneath her skin, I noticed again the scar on the fight side of her face, the thin, white line running from eyebrow to cheek. Conscious of the direction of my gaze, she put up a hand to touch it.
    'I fell out of a tree as a child, cutting my face open on a branch as I did so. Such a trivial accident for which to bear so permanent a reminder.'
    'You could have broken your neck,' I said. 'I wouldn't call that trivial.'
    She shrugged. 'I was young, not above thirteen summers, and you fall easily at that age. Bones are greener. But you're right. I could have suffered more hurt than I did. However, all I have to show for my carelessness is the scar, and that, I flatter myself; is not too noticeable.'
    'No, indeed.' I regarded her admiringly. 'You are a handsome woman. You don't need me to tell you that. But, forgive me, why have you never married? I can't believe that the men of these parts are so blind that not one of them has asked you.'
    She gave a deep, throaty laugh, not displeased by my temerity. But her tone was astringent as she answered, 'What dower do I have, Master Chapman? Who'd have me?'  
    'You have this holding, an attraction to many men I should have thought.'
    I saw at once that I had offended her, and recollected her contempt for the place - her reference to it as a hovel - and her claim to have known 'better things'. I realized then that her aspirations in marriage would be equally lofty, and that she would be unwilling to settle for any cottar or woodsman; not even, perhaps, for a respectable tradesman. And failing any offer from a higher rank, she preferred dignified spinsterhood.
    There were many things about Grizelda Harbourne that I still did not know, and many questions that I should have liked to ask her, but I had neither the time nor the right to do so. I turned and picked up my pack and my cudgel.
    'I must be on my way,' I said. 'I've taken up too much of your time already and I want to be in Totnes well before dinner. But before I leave, I want your promise