Storm Winds Read Online Free Page B

Majesty said I was to use my own judgment as to his care.”
    “A flighty chit of fourteen has no business caring for a prince.”
    “I’m not putting him down.” Juliette’s lips firmed as she avoided Marguerite’s stare and looked out the window of the carriage. She knew silence would serve her better than quarreling, but meekness was never easy for her. Thank the saints they were close to the town of Versailles now and the palace was just a short distance beyond. She would try to ignore Marguerite and think only of the painting in her trunk on the roof of the carriage. Much of the detail on the trees in the work wasstill to be finished; she could paint sunlight filtering through the top leaves of the trees revealing the naked skeletal spines. It would be an interesting effect, suggesting the lack of truth in the characters of the figures she had painted lolling below the boughs of the trees.
    “You always think you know best,” Marguerite grumbled. “Ever since you were a child scarcely older than the prince. Do you believe the queen would have trusted you to stay with Louis Charles if the child’s nurse had not come down with the sickness? Her Majesty will find you out someday. You may amuse her right now with your drawings and bold tongue, but she’s easily bored and will—You’re not listening to me.”
    Juliette shifted her gaze to the thick green shrubbery bordering the bluff on the far side of the road. “No.” She wished Marguerite would cease her acid discourse and let her enjoy these moments of holding the little boy in her arms. She had never had anyone of her own to care for, and during the past few weeks she had actually felt as if Louis Charles belonged to her. But his time of recuperation was over now, she thought wistfully, and in only a few hours she would have to return Louis Charles to his mother and the attention of the royal court.
    Marguerite’s palm cracked against Juliette’s cheek.
    Juliette’s head snapped back, her arms involuntarily loosening about the baby.
    “You’re not too old to be punished for your insolence.” Marguerite smiled with satisfaction at Juliette’s stunned expression. “Your mother trusts me to know how to school you in spite of the spoiling Her Majesty gives you.”
    Juliette’s arms quickly tightened again around Louis Charles. She had not expected the slap. She had clearly misjudged the degree of anger and frustration building in Marguerite since she had been commanded to stay with Juliette at Fontainebleau. “Don’t ever strike me again while I’m holding the boy.” She tried to keep her voice from shaking with anger. “I could have hurt him badly if you’d caused me to drop him.”
    “You’re giving me orders?”
    “I think the queen would be interested to know the reason if Louis Charles suffered any harm, don’t you?”
    Marguerite’s baleful gaze sidled away from Juliette’s stare. “You’ll soon not be able to hide behind the prince. You never would have gotten so out of hand if your mother hadn’t required my services.”
    “I’m not hiding from—”
    A horse neighed in agony
.
    The coach lurched and shuddered to a halt, throwing Juliette to her knees on the floor.
    Louis Charles awoke and began to whimper. “Jul …”
    “What is it?” Marguerite thrust her head out the window of the carriage. “You fool of a coachman, what—”
    The blade of a scythe pierced the wood beside her head, burying its curving length through the side of the coach.
    Marguerite shrieked and jerked back from the window.
    “What’s happening?” Crouched on the floor of the coach still, Juliette gazed at the blade. She could hear shouts, metal clashing against metal, the screams of the horses.
    A bullet suddenly splintered the wooden frame of the door.
    “Farmers. Peasants. Hundreds of them. They’re attacking the carriage.” Marguerite’s voice rose in terror. “They’re going to kill me, and it’s all your fault. If you hadn’t