Read Online A Knight to Remember by Christina Dodd - Free Book Online

push the mug away, then he paused. “Would you like to know the other reason why I refuse to go to your hospital?”
    “If you wish to tell me,” she acquiesced gracefully.
    “Because I always knew you were the only one who could cure me.”
    He laid his hand over hers, pressing her palm into the smooth side of the horn cup. The calluses on his palm scraped her, and he rubbed his fingers in small circles over her skin.
    His voice deepened with sincerity. “Even when death pressed close, I heard your voice talking and felt your strength flow into me.”
    “Heard me?” She almost choked.
    “That’s why I have been drinking vile things, wearing mashed weeds on my wound, eating pap, and hiding myself in a pile of rags whenever anyone comes close to the dispensary.” He brought her hand, and the cup, to his mouth and drank. “Because you tell me to.”
    She wrinkled her nose. He’d heard her? Heard her? When?
    “Is something wrong?” he asked. “You look like you bit down on a bug.”
    “I…” She scrambled for a likely excuse. “This tonic does stink.”
    “It tastes worse.” He finished the cup and released her at last. Contemplative now, he asked, “You were thrown out of your holdings with nothing? You and your children?”
    “Aye.” She wanted to move away, but she had to find out. “Did you understand my voice when you were close to death?”
    “That’s not important.” He dismissed her question without curiosity. “How many children?”
    “Two boys. And I think it’s important.”
    “Do you?” She had caught his attention, and he stroked his chin. “How interesting.”
    By the saints, she didn’t mean for him to think about it! “Probably not important.” She tried to smile. “Two sons, Parkin and Allyn. I didn’t know what to do when the prince’s troops came and put us onto the road with nothing but the clothes we wore.”
    “The prince’s troops. Did they hurt you?”
    “Rape me, you mean?” Unwillingly, she remembered that dreadful day. “Nay. The knight in charge had strict orders, and he followed them.” With scorn and haughtiness. “Throw me and anything that hinted of Robin’s possessions into the dirt.” She’d stood there among the pile of flags and tapestries marked with Robin’s crest and held the boys’ hands. “Prepare the castle for its new lord.”
    “Who was that?”
    “I have not heard the prince has awarded Jagger to anyone yet.”
    “I know where he won’t award it,” Hugh said.
    An odd thing to say. “Where?”
    “To any of the lords who support de Montfort.” He suddenly seemed to taste the tonic. “Give me something to clear my tongue.”
    She was glad to change the subject and helped himback onto his pillow. Wrapping a strip of padding around the clay pot warming on the oven, she brought it to his side and lifted the lid. The scent of herbs wafted into the air, bearing more than a hint of…meat?
    Suddenly alert, he lifted his head. “What’s that?”
    “Broth,” she said, grinning. “Wharton snared a rabbit and cooked it in a stew.”
    He craned his neck and stared into the pot. “Where’s the stew?”
    She understood him perfectly. “You can’t have pieces of meat yet. Your stomach’s not ready.”
    “Nonsense. I’m starving on that porridge you’ve been shoveling into me.”
    “I’m lucky to get that for you.” She dipped the spoon in the broth. “Do you want this, or not?”
    He wanted to argue.
    He wanted to eat.
    He ate.
    As she fed him, she said, “’Tis a great sin, not sharing the food with which God has blessed us. The others in the abbey long for meat also. But I didn’t think I could claim I had snared the rabbit in the royal forest while out looking for herbs.”
    “Couldn’t Wharton have explained he snared the rabbit?”
    “They already eye him with suspicion. Not that we don’t get vagrants hanging about the abbey, but your Wharton has an unusually rough edge to him, and they see him only in the dawn