Seven for a Secret Read Online Free Page B

grave in a decent cemetery except that John had ordered it.
    “It was kind of you to have her buried here when you don’t even know who she was,” Cornelia said after a time.
    “I intend to find out both her identity and who murdered her,” John replied.
    An image of the red dyed corpse face down in the cistern floated to the surface of his thoughts, momentarily displacing the peaceful, sunlit surroundings.
    Cornelia looked up at him, concern in her face. “Was she really the girl in the mosaic, the one you call Zoe?”
    “She was the model for her. I’m convinced of it.” He paused. “I know it worries Peter when he hears me talking to the mosaic, but Zoe and I have had many conversations. She knows more about my thoughts than anyone else.”
    “More than I do after our being apart so many years! Naturally you want to find out the truth of the matter.”
    “Beyond that, I suspect she was murdered because she spoke to me. And that means someone is concealing something which makes it even more important I discover the reason behind her death.”
    “Are you certain that’s what’s making it so important to you, John? How likely is it you’ll be able to find out who she really was? Half the city is dead of the plague, and those left won’t want to talk to a man from the palace. The only answer you get is liable to be a blade between the ribs one moonless night!”
    “Ambushes take place everywhere in the city. Probably least of all on moonless nights when you’re expecting them. In fact, I notice there’s a pair of boots sticking out from behind those bushes.”
    Cornelia’s eyes widened as she looked in the direction John indicated. “I see them and they’re moving.”
    “Indeed they are,” came a voice from the bushes. “And who dares to disturb the dead?”
    At first glance, it might have appeared the man who stepped out from the vegetation was referring to himself. He was little more than a skeleton wrapped in rags. His eyes were milky and his skin pallid. He was however alive enough to wave a sword before thrusting its point into the middle of a patch of ivy wreathing the foot of a monument. “I don’t get many people visiting this corner of the little kingdom I watch over. Who might you be? Family members?” His wheezing voice sounded suspicious.
    “No—” John began.
    The pale apparition hefted his weapon again. “Is that so? Couples think nobody sees what they’re up to in the long grass.” The man leered. John doubted the pale eyes could distinguish errant couples or anything beyond shadowy shapes.
    “We were wondering about the person buried here,” Cornelia said.
    “Her?” The man spat on the bare mound. “Well, them that put her there said t’was by order of the Lord Chamberlain to the emperor.”
    He laughed, precipitating a fit of coughing that shook his gaunt frame. “Given what he is, it’s much more likely she’s some courtier’s fancy woman. I’m already getting complaints from families whose relatives are buried here.”
    Cornelia gave the man an angry scowl and began to reply. John laid his hand on her arm and shook his head.
    Oblivious, the cemetery caretaker continued. “They don’t want their respectable dead anywhere near who knows what. Lord Chamberlain indeed! If the Lord Chamberlain arranged for the likes of her to be buried then Timothy the baker over here ruled Persia when he wasn’t at his ovens.”
    He gave a hoarse laugh and patted the grave marker he stood beside. “I have my own troubles. Can’t see too well, but mind now, I know every dip and bend of this cemetery. Them that try to dig up the dead find that out soon enough. I can make my way better in the dark than they can when the sun is high. Or rather I could before all them new graves appeared. Still, I’ll soon learn my way around again.”
    John observed the recent visitation of the plague must have meant many more interments than in past years.
    The other agreed. “I’ve had a busy