Read Online Judith Merkle Riley by The Master of All Desires - Free Book Online

world in the courtyard, outside the closed shutters of the hall. It sounded like horses’ hooves, well muffled. Impossible, I thought. Our farm buildings, manor house, servants’ houses, stables, and granary form a continuous, high-walled square around the courtyard. Surrounding the house are the still waters of an old moat, planted about with poplars. Whoever enters must come by the gate or by the wicket beneath the gatekeeper’s house, where Vincent lives. And the last thing at night that Vincent does is bar the great gates and the wicket, and turn the mastiffs into the court. No one could be there. Even poor old Gargantua, the most useless creature in the world, who wants only to sleep beneath our bed, had been put out into the summer dark that night for stealing a new plucked capon from beneath the cook’s very eyes. Who could pass by Gargantua without a noisy greeting? It must be my nerves, I thought.
    Silently, I stood up and crossed to the closed shutters, to listen more closely. Then I was sure of it. Directly outside the shutters, almost next to me, I heard men’s quiet footsteps, and something being laid against the wall with a soft thump . Why hadn’t the dogs barked? I heard a whispered command. There was no doubt. Strangers were in the courtyard, and they were laying a ladder against the wall to the upstairs bedroom above the hall, where my sisters lay sleeping in the big bed we all shared.
    Now, despite my general delicacy of feeling, I have the fiery blood of heroes in my veins. I am not the daughter of a military hero who served under the late King Francis at Pavia for nothing. Thieves were climbing to my upstairs bedroom! Bold and immediate action was required! With fierce joy my Poetic and Higher Self struck down the withered gray Muse of Official Documents, and my Flaming and Inspired Heart stirred as if at the sound of a military trumpet! My mind, illumined as if by brilliant lightning, went quick as a flash to father’s wheel lock, which had only the disadvantage that I had never shot it off. But after all, my brain sang boldly, I have seen it done dozens of times, and nothing could be simpler! Why, women could shoot off muskets all the time if they wanted to, were it not that it detracts from the feminine allure. But what had I to lose of feminine charm, me, deprived of these gifts by a forgetful Deity, who managed only to make the feet double sized?
    With a sudden burst of lion-like, or possibly lioness-like, courage, I took the heavy old thing down, nearly staggering under the weight, upended it, poured the powder into the open end, and smashed the wadding down with that long rod that is attached to it. Then I poured a dab more powder into the little pan on top, just the way I’d seen father do. I grabbed the winding key from its hook and crept upstairs in the dark, as silently as a viper, lugging my dangerous sting, as it were, on my back.
    The arm of the harquebus made a click, as I lowered it to brace the gun on a low chest of drawers, pointing it toward the shutters in the dark. There I lurked, like the dangerous spotted panther of the Indies hiding in a tree to spring on unwary natives.
    “You’ve taken the covers again,” muttered Laurette in her sleep, feeling for me. “Sibille? Sibille? Where are you?” she said, coming half-awake as she felt the empty spot.
    “Shush, for God’s sake!” I whispered fiercely, for I was feeling for the spot where you put the key to wind up the firing mechanism.
    “What are you doing?” she said, and I could hear her sitting up in bed.
    “This,” I said, winding up the wheel with a clatter of the mechanism. “Stay where you are.”
    Then everything seemed to happen all at once.
    Someone slipped a long, thin knife through the crack between the shutters and slid up the catch. Moonlight flooded into the room, showing a masked man climbing over the sill, almost exactly in front of the muzzle of my mighty weapon. Laurette screamed and leaped up,