Adora Read Online Free PDF Page B

touch was warm. He felt her relax. “Is it very lonely for you, Adora?”
    “I have my studies, Prince Murad,” she answered.
    “No friends? Poor little princess.”
    She snatched her hand away. “I do not need anyone’s pity. Least of all yours!”
    The moon had risen. It was very round and very full; its bright light cast a silvery glow on the fat, golden peaches that hung like perfect globes from the heavy branches. It touched the fair-skinned face of Theadora Cantacuzene, and Murad saw that her look was proud, though she fought to keep tears from filling her amethyst eyes.
    “I do not pity you, dove,” he said. “I merely regret that someone as alive as you are should be wed to an old man and incarcerated in a convent. You were made for a young man’s passionate caresses.”
    “I am a princess of Byzantium,” she said coldly. “I was born to the title, even before my father became emperor. It is the duty of a princess to wed where she may do her family the most good. It was my father the emperor’s wish that I wed the sultan. As a good Christian daughter it was not my place to question his wish.”
    “Your filial devotion is to be commended, Adora, but you speak like the child you are. If you had ever known love you would not be so stiff and unyielding.”
    “My family loves me,” she retorted, outraged.
    “Do they? Your father bartered you into marriage with a man old enough to be your grandfather, simply so he can callupon the sultan’s armies to help him keep his stolen throne,” said Murad. “He gave your sister in marriage to his rival, the boy emperor. At least she has a husband only three years her senior. And should the young John overcome the old John eventually, your father‘s life would still be safe because his daughter would then be empress! But what of
you
? Do you know that your sister, Helena, recently gave birth to her first child, a son? She preaches a holy war against the ‘infidel’! Helena obviously has
great
love for you. She is aided in her endeavors by your half sister, Sophia, whose piety is second only to her sexual excesses, which are the scandal of Constantinople. When was the last time either of them communicated with you? And what of your brother, Matthew, who is now to become a monk? Has he written to you? These are the people who love you?”
    “My father did what was best for the empire,” she said angrily. “He is a great ruler! As to my sisters, Sophia was already a woman when I was yet a child. I barely know her. Helena and I have always been rivals. She may talk of holy wars,” and here Adora’s voice became scornful, “but it will never be. The empire can barely defend itself, let alone do battle against the sultan.” Her grasp of that particular political truth impressed him. “My mother,” she continued, “keeps me fully informed. Though we have not seen each other since I left Constantinople, she writes to me each week. And my lord Orkhan has a special messenger, for me alone, who brings my letters directly from the coast and returns with my replies. My half brother John was killed in battle a few months after I came here, and she sent me word of his death immediately, so that I could pray for his soul. My mother cannot visit me. You surely know that travel is dangerous. And the wife of the emperor of Byzantium would make a fine prize for pirates and robbers! But I am very much loved, Prince Murad! I am!”
    “You know
nothing
of love,” he said fiercely, pulling her into his lap, holding her firmly.
    “You remember only the vague affection of a child for its family. No one has ever truly touched you, or stirred your proud, cold little heart. But I will, Adora! I will awaken you to life…to love…to yourself!”
    “You have no right,” she spat angrily at him, struggling to break his grip on her. “I am your father’s wife! Is this how you honor the Koran? What of your promise not to seduce me?”
    He smiled grimly. “I will keep that