A Knight to Remember Read Online Free PDF

might have been twins, so alike are they in temperament and appearance.”
    He struggled to open his eyes. “Don’t care about them.”
    “Lady Blanche’s mother was singularly unappreciative when presented with her husband’s child by her maid so soon before Lady Blanche’s birth.”
    “Tell me…you.”
    “I think Lady Blanche drank bitterness from her mother’s tit, and Adda absorbed it from the moment she was put in Lady Blanche’s service.”
    “When I’m better…”
    “Both girls were placed in the nunnery at the age of seven to get rid of them.”
    “Edlyn…”
    “And they move from abbey to abbey as they make themselves unwelcome.”
    Hugh’s faint snore stopped her. She slid the folded rags beneath his head, but he didn’t move, and she grinned in open triumph.
    Wharton’s voice sounded from behind her. “He’s going t’ wake someday, ye know, an’ he’ll get those answers he wants.”
    Gathering the bottle and the cup, she faced Wharton and his armload of wood. “Not from me, he won’t.”
    Wharton knelt to place the logs on the pile. “He always gets what he wants.”
    “Then it’s time he learned differently.” Stepping well away from Wharton, she returned the bottle to its hiding place and put the stool away again. “I have work to do.”
    “How long will it take him t’ get well?”
    Edlyn realized that wasn’t what he wanted to ask. He really wanted to know if Hugh would get well, and she didn’t know the answer to that. She had prescribed the most effective medicine she knew. “Pray for him. Perhaps in a fortnight he’ll be well enough to sit up.”
    “Pray fer him.” Wharton’s despair sounded clear. “Isn’t there more I can do?”
    “Let him sleep.” She stared at the long log of a man in the rough brown garment. “When his fever rises, bathe him with cool water.”
    “That’ll kill him.”
    “Not as long as he rests by the oven, it won’t. It’ll keep the fever from going too high.” She frowned atthe filthy clothing Wharton had stripped from Hugh. “I’ll have to hide this. It’s clearly a warrior’s aketon, and a large warrior at that.” Picking up the pieces, she wondered what to do with them, then stuffed them behind the large jars of oil and wine on the floor. “He probably won’t wake until tonight, and then you should give him a drop from the bottle you saw me hide.” She pointed her finger at him sternly. “But only a drop, or he’ll drift away and never return.”
    Terror made Wharton’s eyes bulge. “Ye do it.”
    “I can’t. I sleep in the guest house, and there’s a monk who questions all who come and go in the night.”
    “That monk’ll do as he’s told.”
    “Nay.” She tried to soothe Wharton’s alarm. “You take good care of your master. This, too, you can do.”
    “Ye.”
     
    When Hugh woke, he was aware of only two things. He was hot. And he had to be silent.
    A beast gnawed at his side, cutting its teeth against his ribs and seeking the softer meat of his intestines. Its warm breath seared him and he wanted to push it away, but he dared not move. He had to be silent. Everything depended on his silence. Wharton’s safety. His own safety. Edlyn’s safety…Edlyn.
    Edlyn? Consciousness nudged at him. He hadn’t thought of Edlyn in years, and she certainly couldn’t be here now. Not in a nunnery. Not working like a common peasant. He was delirious. He had to be.
    “Drink this.”
    His dream Edlyn knelt beside him. She lifted his head and pressed it against her bosom, then placed a cup to his lips. He drank greedily, then turned and nuzzled her breasts.
    She put him down rather hastily, jarring his aching head. He heard Wharton’s voice harp and scold and opened his eyes to reprimand him.
    He didn’t see Wharton. He saw his dream Edlyn leaning over his side, forcing the ravenous beast to cease its dinner. But it might turn and rend her, so he said, “Careful.”
    He said it clearly, but she didn’t seem to