With Her Kiss (Swords of Passion) Read Online Free Page A

nodded, Geoff’s heart raced with a small hope because he knew the man who presided there over a monks’ quarter. “Is that not where our old friend Henry Gervais now wears the cloth?”
    Will nodded, warmth in his one blue eye. “The very same. He will give you aid.”
    “I’ll ask for more than that.” His mind racing with a plan, Geoff thrilled to the task and quickened to the goal. “Better yet, this St Augustine’s is close by a river, is it not?”
    “You know it is.”
    “And Bristol is not far from Chepstow.” He would need a large castle, impervious to attack by a small or inexperienced force. He’d need a safe place to lay Kat down, nurse her, coddle her, cajole her towards recovery.
    “William Marshall’s household would welcome you, Geoff.” Will cocked an eyebrow, a sly smile teasing his lips at the mention of their friend, the most powerful man in the realm save John. “Plus, as I recall, you do favour escapes by water.”
    “Aye. Would that this once I could walk on it!”
    “Take a strong retinue, Geoff. Your best men. I know you would wish to surprise them, but you cannot risk tricks by John. We know not who goes there at his orders.”
    “You are right, but a group slows me and I cannot tarry.”
    “Ride them hard, Geoff,” Will demanded. “Better to go prepared with a force, than lose before you have begun the battle.”
    Geoff ran a hand across his mouth. “Five days without food or water, six, seven at the most, and a human dies of starvation. You remember that from our days with Richard in Acre and on the shores of Joppa.”
    “Aye, when Saladin’s forces tried to bottle us up along the Mediterranean and we nursed the dying with olives, wheat and wine. You must be careful, too, how you begin to feed her. She’ll be in pain from lack of nourishment.”
    Geoff’s mind spun with plans. To feed her, he’d need milk, untainted water and a thin gruel of oats. To save her mind, he’d need a priest. To save her body from more of John’s savagery, he’d use his friend the priest in novel ways. And in the doing, he’d ask his old comrade in arms to act in all ways holy and not. “I pray that she will not kill me for the service.”
    “Oh, John would like that. Two of you dead in one blow,” Will declared with disdain for their King. “I have sent word to Simon and his countess of your need for his support to save Katherine. He has the ear of the northern lords and you may well need their friendship, along with my own friends in the mid country.”
    “You know John will not take lightly to my meddling in his plan to let Katherine die.”
    “Aye, he will be on you in a fortnight or even less if he can summon local allies to capture you.” Will smirked. “I always thought you liked the Tower too much.”
    Geoff’s frequent internments in the King’s dungeons had marked his body in ways he was reminded of whenever he stretched his shoulders. He did now and the scars of John’s lash still smarted. For the King’s treachery to friend and foe and family, Geoff vowed the man would now pay for his perversity to helpless females. “To put our King in the Tower is now my fondest ambition.”
    “Treason falls too easily on all our tongues these days,” Will mourned. “What future have we if we cannot persuade our ruler to govern us with justice?”
    “A question John must answer. Now or in hell.”

Chapter Two

    Wild with impatience to be gone, Geoff left with his men within the hour. He had more than seventy miles to cover, a ride that would normally take seven or more hours, keeping his horses at a steady trot. But he could not drive his mounts like that without a break. Nor could his men survive such an ordeal without hazard to their health. Geoff knew he would need gold coin and plenty of it. Plus he’d need a thief’s hardiness to make that distance in cloak of night and preferably before dawn. But he tried.
    None of his fine Arabian horses served him or his men as well