A Kiss in the Night Read Online Free PDF Page B

individual stretches as squires. Paxton would never forget that day. Morgan had taken one look at him and knew that it would no longer be Paxton who suffered defeat in a physical battle. They were twenty-five now. These ten years had been filled with a lifetime of resentments and grievances, and as Paxton rose to his full height and looked at Morgan, he understood that he had waited for this moment all these years.
    With the reflex honed by a hundred battles, Paxton's arm shot up to block Morgan's next blow, while his fist shot to Morgan's stomach. A grunt sounded before Morgan swung again, but Paxton ducked, swung back, and sent Morgan flying to the dirt.
    John shouted for them to stop in the name of God and then their mother, but they were far beyond any reason now. As Morgan came to his feet again and lunged toward him, something snapped deep inside Paxton, letting loose the rage he had suppressed all his life. Blow after blow followed. All too soon Morgan lay on the ground, his arms shielding his head, and still Paxton's fist pummeled his body.
    Henry and Clifford leaped to pull Paxton off Morgan, but it was too late. Paxton was crazed. He turned his strength on them, and this saved his brother's life. The near deadly force of his blows dropped first Henry and then Clifford to the ground. Henry did not get up. Clifford lifted partially up, feeling his broken jaw, which would not move, and pain throbbing through his body.
    Breathing heavily, Paxton stared in shock at his brother. John was lifting Morgan up in his arms, Morgan's lips were bloodied. He spat out more blood and wiped at his mouth with a trembling hand. One eye was swollen shut, but his other eve searched for and found Paxton several feet away
    He hid none of his hatred as he pronounced the punishment. "The lady will be dead now!" He tried to catch his breath, feeling the dull ache of a broken rib. "And I lay her death at your whoring feet!" He struggled up to stand, needing to face Paxton as he said his last words. "I banish you forevermore from my Gaillard, do you hear me? Banished! By God, if I ever see you here again, I will have your head hung from the battlements! This I swear!"
    Paxton heard John and Clifford gasp in shock, and watched as the older man he loved and trusted immediately stepped between them and tried to make Morgan take it back. Morgan pushed him away violently. It was too late.
    The words had been said.
    Banished forevermore.
    Paxton turned his back to Morgan for the last time.
    A sudden grief almost dropped him to his knees. Only the absolute refusal to ever suffer another humiliation at his brother's hands kept each booted foot moving until he reached his waiting horse. He mounted and turned the beast away, not daring to take a last glance at the land, its chateau, and the people he loved. With his back ramrod-straight, he stared only ahead to the road that led away from Gaillard and into an uncertain future.
    "Good riddance, brother mine," Morgan said, his voice rising to cross the distance as if it might possibly reach all of Gaillard. "I want no one to mention his name to me ever again. I have at last finished with my nemesis, my brother, my enemy in this life."
    * * * *
     
    Linness still remembered the night her mother had crept up behind her with a thick wooden staff and struck her hard across her head She had just turned five. Thunder and lightning had lit the darkened sky. She had been standing in the doorway of their small stone cottage, watching the rain fall in sheets. The river where her maman had taught her to swim was rising. Mud had poured from the hilltop behind the cottage, rising halfway to the window and making her mother say, "God have mercy," over and over. A vicious cough kept interrupting the prayer, reducing it over and over to pitiful gasps for breath.
    Poor, poor Maman ...
    Water from the well had spilled over, making it look like a fountain. It had made a puddle in the front of the house. She remembered her