Haunted Knights (Montbryce~The Next Generation Historical Romance) Read Online Free

Gorse was bemoaning that she had awakened at all. “Another day of grinding misery, Agnès. Death would be preferable to the burdensome guilt I carry daily.”
    Agnès knew all about guilt. She muttered gentle admonitions to the woman she had served, but never liked, for more than twenty years. “Come along, milady. I’ll brush your hair. It always makes you feel better.”
    With a deep sigh, her mistress stirred to perch on the side of the bed. Agnès took up the brush and waited for the litany to begin.
    “After two boys, the birth of a daughter was a source of great joy. I had more than satisfied the need to provide an heir.”
    Agnès knew the girl in question only too well, having been her reluctant guardian for many a year. She put her hand on top of her mistress’s head and stroked the brush through the lank strands of dull grey hair.
    Maudine shivered. “You’re the only one I can confide in now. My husband turned away from me long ago. Agnès, you are my witness. For a year I doted on my daughter, often to the detriment of my sons. If Paulina seemed not to be growing as fast as my boys had, I did not remark on it. Boys were boys. Girls grew more slowly.”
    Agnès nodded as she brushed. She knew her role well. “I remember that time. ‘Twas as you say.”
    “By the time Paulina was two, I knew in my heart something was amiss. I saw it in my husband’s eyes.”
    Agnès held her tongue. If she showed her true feelings, her horror at what was to come next, her mistress would cast her out. Maudine Lallement had never been an understanding or patient woman.
    A tear trickled down the wrinkled cheek. “I prayed daily. I fasted for long periods of time, hoping my penance would bring God’s mercy. I fashioned a knotted belt which I wore around my waist, pulling it tighter each day.”
    Agnès sniffled appropriately. “We feared for you then, milady. ‘Twas a bad time.”
    Maudine nodded furiously. “I was afraid of birthing another cursed child, and refused to lie with my husband, until the fateful day he tore the clothes from my body and discovered the knots had eaten into my flesh.”
    She shuddered. “I will long recall the agony as he carefully peeled the cord from my body, tears streaming down his face.”
    Agnès took a deep breath. She had tried to no avail to forget the sound of those screams. “We heard you in the servants’ quarters. Sir Marc fled to the garden after, and retched till we thought he might choke. But he never said a word of what had caused your pain.”
    True enough, though Agnès had been summoned to tend her mistress’s ghastly wounds. Bile rose in her throat even now at the memory.
    Maudine fidgeted nervously as Agnès put down the brush and fingered the hair into three parts for braiding.
    “We discussed our daughter’s slow growth. I had to atone in order to lift the curse on her.”
    Agnès recognised her cue and paused in her plaiting. “What did he say?”
    Maudine shrugged. “He shook his head. Paulina was small, but he insisted she would grow. She needed love, as did our sons.”
    Anger twisted her thin face. “I snarled at him and told him I could not love a creation of the devil. His sons would be shunned when people learned they had a deformed sister.
    “He lost his temper, and forbade me to carry on with my penance. I told him I would not lie with him again until our daughter was shut away.
    “He argued and cajoled, but from that day forth I have shunned my daughter. He installed her in the suite in the attic. You and her nursemaid went with her. I capitulated and allowed him into my bed. Nine months later, Rosamunda was born.”
    Agnès doubted Maudine Lallement knew she told this tale every day. Agnès bore it. She and Thomas had lived for twenty years with the shame and regret of not having fled the cursed house then. She supposed her mistress needed someone to confirm the righteousness of what she had done, even if it was a lowly servant who had witnessed