Page 99 of By the Sword
Kate closed her eyes, spent from the emotion. ‘I wish I had your faith. He will go on blaming himself, Nell.’
And the Lord alone knew what the consequence of that would be.
Chapter 35
Jonathan sat on the broad window ledge in the library, his long legs cramped into the window space, an unread book in his hand and a table with a half-empty bottle of wine at his elbow.
‘God’s death, it’s like walking into the past, Thornton. You used to sit there sulking when your father had chastised you.’
Jonathan swung his gaze around to the doorway where Giles stood, leaning heavily on one of Sir Francis’ stout sticks.
‘What are you doing here?’ he snarled.
‘Escaping my wife. I’ve had weeks of being cooped up in a room filled with frills and furbelows. I need some male company.’
Giles helped himself to a glass of wine and pulled up a chair. Resting his bad leg on the window ledge, he stretched. ‘God’s blood, Jon, as dearly as I love my wife I am beginning to yearn for the freedom of France.
Jonathan cast him a sideways glance. ‘And the freedom to choose your bed mate?’
Giles shrugged. ‘Nell thinks she is with child again,’ he said.
Jonathan raised an eyebrow. ‘That should occupy her idle hours in your absence. Giles, I swear you just have to hang your hat on a nail and you get her with child. It’s a miracle you don’t have by-blows from here to Paris.’
Giles ignored the jibe. ‘In your idle hours have you considered how best you and I are to escape this tangle?’ he asked, changing the subject.
Jonathan shook his head. ‘My only thought is to head for London. How about you?’
Giles shook his head and ruefully rubbed his knee. ‘It’ll be a few weeks yet before I can sit on a horse,’ he said.
They lapsed into silence again. Jonathan poured them both another glass of wine from the rapidly diminishing bottle by his side.
‘I’ve been wondering if Prescott was telling the truth?’ he said at last.
‘What about?’ Giles asked, idly shuffling a stained and battered pack of cards.
‘Prescott told me Mary’s child still lived.’
Giles’ hands stilled. ‘Did he, by God? My dear Thornton, have you considered that under the circumstances he probably would have said anything if he thought it would put you off guard? He told Kate he had the boy, don’t forget.’
‘Your motherless bastard’–Prescott’s words had reverberated in Jonathan’s mind.
He had never been in a position to verify the facts about Mary’s death. He’d had the news thirdhand from a mutual acquaintance. Mary and the child had died. Women died in childbirth along with their babies. But could it be possible that the child had lived, its existence deliberately concealed from him?
Jonathan swilled the wine in his glass. ‘I have to know, Giles and there is only one way to find out.’
‘You’re surely not thinking of going to Oxford?’ Giles asked, his eyes widening. ‘You’d be mad. The Woolnoughs would turn you in as soon as you knocked on their door.’
‘I am sure they would,’ agreed Jonathan. ‘You’re quite right. It would be madness. Now, are you going to deal those cards?’
He swung his legs off the window ledge and cleared the table. Giles obligingly cut the pack.
‘Bear in mind, old friend’– Jonathan placed a heavy emphasis on the last two words–’I don’t have a groat to my name.’
Giles waved his hand expansively. ‘Neither do I but I am willing to add the debt to the ledger,’ he said.
They played a hand before Giles remarked, ‘When are you going to talk to Kate?’
He might just as well have dealt Jonathan a physical blow. The wine in Jonathan’s glass slopped onto his hand.
