A Dark Champion Read Online Free PDF

to his brow. She was an elegant queen. Tall, slender, and blonde, she was the envy of all Christendom, and at times such as this, Henry remembered why he had married her (aside from the fact that she held control of more French lands than the French king).
    Henry handed her the old cloth and grimaced. “What am I to do, Nora?” he asked his wife. “Apparently no lady in the kingdom is willing to wed until Stryder chooses a bride. What foolishness has plagued these women?”
    “If you were a woman, Henry, you would have no need to ask that. The man is quite pleasing to the eyes and has more wealth than even you.”
    He growled at her.
    To his utter horror, another knock sounded. “If ’tis anyone other than my physician, send him away.”
    His guards opened the door to show him Lionel of Sussex. They were about to shove the man out when Henry stopped them. “Nay, he is one of the few people We are ever grateful to see. Unless he says the name Stryder of Blackmoor, that is.”
    Lionel frowned at that. He came forward andbowed low, his eyes never wavering from Henry’s head where the cloth resided. “Have you an ache, my liege?”
    “Aye, but We are trying to decide which one plagues Us most. The one in Our head or the one in Our—”
    “Henry!” Eleanor snapped.
    “Neck,” he said gruffly. “I was going to say ‘neck.’”
    Eleanor gave him a disbelieving stare.
    Lionel came forward to kiss the queen’s hand before Eleanor sat down in the chair next to Henry.
    Henry watched as his old friend took up pacing in the open area between his chair and the doors. He knew what vexed Lionel. “She won’t decide?”
    “Decide? Nay, Majesty. She won’t agree to anyone at all. She has some foolish notion that she is a teacher and wants to set up a school.”
    Henry groaned at that. Lady Rowena was an heiress whose wealth was not so great in coin. Her desirability lay in the fact that she was heiress to practically the whole of southern England. Whoever married her would control the border of his kingdom and separate the northern part of England from his lands in France.
    With all the trouble he was having with Phillip of France, the last thing he could afford was for that land to fall into the possession of anyone who was less than friendly toward him. In the wrong hands, that land would spell the end of his monarchy.
    “What was wrong with Lord Ansley?”
    “He, like the others, is knighted. She says she will not consider a knight.”
    “Then force her!” Henry snapped.
    Lionel sighed. “I wish it were that simple, Majesty. The last time I tried to force her hand, she ran away to the continent and was gone until I agreed to forget my plans for her. I sent out more than two score men to find her and was unable to do so. She only returned because I signed a document swearing I would allow her the power to naysay any man I proposed to be her husband.”
    Eleanor laughed.
    Both men glared at her.
    “Forgive me, gentlemen,” she said, smiling. “I have to say that I admire the girl’s temerity and wherewithal.”
    “Will you admire it when Phillip sits upon Our throne?”
    She sobered instantly. “Calm yourself, Henry.”
    Lionel raked a frustrated hand through his graying brown hair. “I fear I shall just have to live forever. I can’t die and allow her lands to go to a man who can’t protect them.”
    Henry snorted at that. “No offense, Lionel, even now We worry at your abilities to hold her inheritance. There are many men out there who grow impatient with her indecision. Sooner or later one of them is bound to pounce.”
    “No offense taken, Majesty. I have the same fear every time one of those greedy beasts comes calling for her hand. I know you speak the truth and I appreciate it.”
    The king pulled the cloth from his brow. “What is the matter with the youth of today?” Henry asked the ceiling above them as if addressing heaven itself. “Inmy day, we married when we were supposed to and we