Read Online HealingPassion by Katherine Kingston - Free Book Online

last few months she’s weakened. I fear she
will not last much longer. ‘Twill be a sad day for the lady when her mother
passes.”
    Thomas recognized the diversion, but went with it, hoping he
could glean some useful information from it.
    “She’ll truly be alone then. Has she no other family to help
her?”
    “None that I know of, my lord.”
    “That is sad. And she’s so very young still. Think you
she’ll marry again?”
    The man watched him for a moment before he shrugged. “We do
not know with any certainty that Lord Groswick no longer lives. As to her plans
in either case, I cannot say. ‘Tis not for me to speculate.”
    Thomas commended the man for his discretion and was annoyed
by it at the same time. He continued to question the man a while longer, but
was able to shake loose no further information. He bid the man good-day and
went to look for another source.
    The next several buildings were barns and storehouses. He
found one groom in the barn, but the boy was slow-witted and no help at all.
    Two doors down he found the cooper and his three
apprentices. All looked up from a large cask they were putting together when he
entered.
    “Sir Thomas!” The master cooper was a large, paunchy, mostly
bald man with a booming voice. “Welcome to our workshop. I’m Stephen the
Cooper, this is Edward, Alwyn, and Gwynn.” He pointed to each of the three boys
who held gently curved staves in place while he bound them with some kind of
wire. “How can we serve you, my lord?”
    He had no personal task for this group, so he went directly
to his purpose. “As you likely know, the king sent me to inquire as to the fate
of Lord Groswick. It grieves his majesty to know that one of his barons appears
to have disappeared from the earth.”
    “Ah, no doubt,” the cooper said, though his tone belied the
words, suggesting some reservations on the question of whether the king was
concerned about this particular baron. “I doubt there’s much I can tell you
others haven’t, my lord. Lord Groswick left late last year, saying he was going
to join the Prince on the Continent. So far as I know, none here has seen or
heard from him since.”
    Thomas questioned him for some time, but as predicted, he
heard nothing he hadn’t known before. The man was garrulous, however, and
Thomas spent over an hour with him, learning more than he’d ever wanted to know
of the cooper’s art, the weather, the crops, the other residents of the keep,
and the history of the building itself. None of it offered any help to him in
his mission, however.
    He returned to the keep in mid-afternoon, intending to
question some of the household servants himself. He was beginning to feel the
need to learn more of Lord Groswick, his manner and habits. Perhaps in that he
could begin to get some sense of why the man had disappeared, or what might
have become of him.
    However, as he passed Lady Juliana’s workroom, he looked in
and realized the lady was there, sitting at the desk, going over what appeared
to be a ledger book. She didn’t hear him, so he stopped in the doorway to
admire her. A few dark curls had escaped from the coronet under her veil and
spilled down her temples and around her ears. As she read over the lines on the
paper, she twirled one of those strands around her finger. He doubted she
realized she was doing it.
    She looked incredibly young, sitting in the chair her late
husband would have filled better, doing work that should have been his. Yet she
was calm and at rest, clearly competent for this task. The line of her throat
described a lovely curve and the flesh there looked soft and ripe. He wanted to
go and kiss it until she moaned and begged for him. He wanted to lift the
burden of too much responsibility from her shoulders.
    Juliana looked up suddenly and met his eyes. A welcoming
smile spread across her face as she called his name. “Sir Thomas! Come in,
please. I trust you had a restful night.”
    His heart squeezed at the way his