Read Online The Pearls by Deborah Chester - Free Book Online Page A

crack of a whip and the snorting of horses. Her driver bawled commands, and the litter shuddered so violently Lea clutched at whatever handhold she could find. But it did not roll forward. Instead, she felt the conveyance sink a little lower, and through the curses of the men she heard a sucking, squelching noise.
    They did not give up. More shouts came, and she heard the servants cluster at the back, muttering under their breath as someone directed them to push on command. Again the whip cracked. Again the horses pulled. Again the litter tilted and settled, and did not budge.
    When Lea heard the order for a pry pole to be cut from the woods, she pushed open her curtains, noticing they were now liberally splashed with mud.
    â€œThirbe!”
    He picked his way to her, holding up the hem of his cloak. A stocky man grizzled of hair and weathered of face, with a combat-flattened nose and a jaw of iron, Thirbe was formerly of the Twelfth Legion, veteran of four Madrun campaigns under the old emperor, and an expredlicate. He possessed all the toughness of boot leather, the quickness and stamina of a man half his age, the cynicism of a gladiator, and the irritable nature of a thirsty man beholding a closed tavern. Right now, his mouth was clamped tight, and beneath the curve of his leather helmet his eyes glittered with ill humor and impatience.
    â€œAye, m’lady,” he said before she could inquire. “It’s stuck up to the axles. You’ll have to come out of there while they see to it.”
    Delighted, Lea pulled her pale blue wool cloak around her shoulders, tying the strings swiftly, and held out her hands.
    Thirbe scooped her up and carried her to pavement, well out of the way of muddy servants and gawking cavalrymen. Every man who happened to glance in her direction smiled and nodded respectfully. Lea smiled back cheerfully, and no sooner did her red leather boots touch the ground than she was twirling around in excitement.
    â€œWhat is this place? What a pretty little valley. It looks leagues away from—”
    â€œAye, leagues from nowhere,” Thirbe said bitterly. “Another bright idea from love’s winsome dream.”
    â€œThirbe, hush!” Lea glanced around to see if he’d been overheard. “Don’t call him that. You will only spread rumors.”
    â€œMy lady!” called out one of her attendants from a second litter standing near the supply wagons. “Do you require us?”
    â€œNo,” Lea said with feeling.
    Thirbe beckoned to a lackey and said, “Inform Lady Lea’s attendants that they are not needed.”
    As the man bowed and scurried away to deliver the message, Thirbe cleared his throat. “Well, then, the captain took some skittish fool notion in his head the moment scouts brought a report of fire in Brondi. He turned off the main road, and now see where we are.”
    â€œFire?” Lea asked, busy staring at the woods to the west and a narrow little valley to the east. A stream bordered the other side of the road, chuckling over rocks and running swift between low banks. She still found it very pretty, and yet a sudden prickle of unease touched her. “What kind of fire?”
    â€œStupid southlanders,” Thirbe muttered with the typical Itierian contempt for any other province and its customs. “Always building with wood instead of stone. Bound to be fires. Nothing sinister about it. No need for that gormless sprat to assume there’s a riot.”
    â€œThirbe—”
    â€œWell, there ain’t,” Thirbe said, exasperated. “He acts fair gutsnapped at times. I don’t think anyone’s going to attack you, m’lady, with a house fire.”
    She chuckled despite herself, and pulled up her hood against the cold bite of wind. “Captain Hervan is just being careful.”
    â€œBeing a damned noddy-knot, for all I can see,” Thirbe said. “Pulling us onto this abandoned road