Read Online The Blessed by Lisa T. Bergren - Free Book Online Page A

the man could hear her. “Will you not see her? Our Lady Daria?”
    She gestured back toward Daria and Gianni. Gianni tossed his cape backward in agitation, revealing the red peacock on the white background, as well as the hilt of his sword. In the dim light, the d’Angelo crest almost glowed, and Piero could feel the man’s eyes drawn to it like moths to a flame. Of course. God had given him a sign, just as he had the Les Bauxs. Some key that would unlock the door to this man’s hardened heart.
    Lord Devenue leaned backward, as if against a wave of wind, eyes still upon Gianni’s cape. And yet it was utterly still.
    Piero whispered to Daria, “He knows your family crest. He has seen the peacock somehow, somewhere.”
    â€œOnly the healer and her people. Even you, Anette. The rest will have to stay in my courtyard or the stables. The mansion is not suitable anyway.” What he meant to say . . . I am unsuitable . . . remained unspoken.
    â€œAs you wish, brother,” Count Armand said with a smile, as if the man had offered them his choice accommodations.
    â€œI have no food,” said the lord.
    â€œWe brought enough for all,” said Armand.
    And with that, Lord Devenue left the wall and came down to let them in.
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THE pain radiated off him like heat off a sun-baked stone. No doubt the massive tumors were causing him to lose balance, hunger, thought, memory, as well as forcing him to endure intolerable agony. Daria struggled not to gasp at the enormity of the two bulges atop his head. And the smell of him . . . the man reeked as if he had not bathed in months. Tessa leaned hard against her. “Oh, m’lady, he is in such pain,” she said.
    â€œI know, Tess,” she said, studying the man. She took the torch from Gianni and slowly circled the man, who stood under a cobweb-covered chandelier and in front of a door that did not latch properly. The stairwell was covered in dust. Two chairs were in the corner, little more than a pile of splintered sticks. What impotent rage had this man suffered?
    â€œBe at peace, m’lord, I have come to bring you the Lord’s healing.”
    â€œBe that in heaven or on earth?” he asked, meeting her eye as she came before him again.
    â€œI do not yet know. But your agony ends here, this night,” she said.
    â€œThere have been others, others who have pledged the same.”
    â€œThen why allow me entry?”
    â€œBecause you are in the company of my one great love.”
    Daria paused and considered Piero’s whispered words. “And something more. The peacock. You have been given a sign.”
    Lord Devenue looked away. His chin was strong, his eyes wide and clear, even if filled with pain and sorrow. But she was right. “For days now, I have not slept. And when I doze off, one thing has come to me in my dreams . . . a red peacock on a white background.”
    â€œOur Lord was preparing you, showing you that we were to come.” He did not answer. He feared believing. She had to awaken in him at least a tiny glimmer of hope.
    â€œWe are here, Lord Devenue, to heal you. God has used me to heal many in this past year, and you are to be the next. He is always very clear in his direction. I was at Les Baux when he spoke to me about you.”
    The young lord eyed her. “It was not Anette, or one of her maidservants, who spoke of me?”
    â€œNary a word. I knew not your name, but I knew where you were, and what ailed you.”
    â€œHow?”
    â€œI cannot explain it. I simply knew, as if someone had whispered to me in my own dreams.”
    Lord Devenue paused, studying her with eyes that bore the ravages of pain. “So come, then. What have I to lose? I have long embraced death, prayed for it. Do what you must, m’lady.”
    â€œI thank you, m’lord, for entrusting yourself to my care.”
    â€œWhat shall I call you? And why travel in such number?”
    â€œWe