Beast Read Online Free PDF Page B

that would imperil their lives, but he didn’t care to imperil his own, either.
    “And Lord Fueil, is he a part of this tragic misunderstanding, as well?” Wilhelm asked.
    “Why do you insist on diplomacy?” Johanna demanded, coming to stand beside her brother. She gestured angrily to the bed. “He does not lie here wounded from a misunderstanding. He is in some trouble that will no doubt end up at our doorstep! There will be no misunderstanding then. Just swords and execution, mark me.”
    Philipe was no fool. There was nothing would calm her anger, save a confession. “Your sister speaks sense.”
    “Does she?” Wilhelm’s voice held an edge colder than the wind outside. “I think you’d better be out with it. Our hospitality is legend, but it has a limit.”
    “My father believes I am plotting his death.” When he listened to himself saying it, it sounded ridiculous. To them, it likely would not. He imagined they thought him capable of not only plotting, but striking a death blow against his father with his own hand. “I’m not, but thank you for rushing to deny it.”
    “And that is the misunderstanding?” Johanna laughed in disbelief. “Oh, such a minor detail, it isn’t a wonder it would slip your mind. I’m sure you would have remembered eventually that you are a traitor to the crown taking shelter under our roof and risking our lives selfishly for your own end!”
    “Johanna, give him leave to explain.” It was not a kindness Wilhelm sought to do him, Philipe realized. He would simply need to report the facts when he turned the rogue prince over. “Why would your father believe you were plotting to kill him?”
    “He commented a week past that he no longer liked the look of the velvet on the windows in his bedroom.” Philipe paused. The tale was so unbelievable, it left even him baffled. He was too tired to earnestly convince anyone, so he said it all, plainly. “But the king is not in his correct state of late. He has been ill, and the illness has ravaged his mind. When one of the palace servants measured the windows, he became convinced that the new drapes were an assassination plot. Because I am a fool, I involved myself. I told my father that I had been in attendance at the audience where he’d remarked that new drapes were needed. Because he is a sane and reasonable ruler, he decided that this was evidence that not only was a plot afoot, but I was at the root of it.”
    Johanna made a disgusted noise and went back to the hearth. Wilhelm sat back, hands on his knees. “You must admit your tale is…rather doubtable. The King Albart I remember from all those years ago was a fair and patient ruler.”
    “With respect, Wilhelm, the King Albart you remember no longer exists. I have my faults, I will admit. You have no doubt heard gossip—”
    “What gossip?” Johanna interrupted. “What gossip could we have possibly heard here, with no servants or serfs? With hardly anyone bothering to ride out here to trade? What gossip do you think we could have heard?”
    “My lady, I do not mean offense,” Philipe tried, but again he was rebuffed.
    Johanna turned away and stalked the room like a caged tiger. “He lies, Wilhelm. We know he lies, for I am living evidence of it. And Albart, turned into some mad king, wouldn’t the lords who were already dissatisfied with him have raised their banners against him by now? But they have not! He tells us a tale, brother, a fanciful tale to take what he wants from us. Should the king’s men ride to our gates, he will run off like a rat and let them cut our throats! I say we return him to his father and claim whatever bounty is on his head.”
    His heartbeat a cold, painful thing in his chest, Philipe opened his mouth to respond, but he could say nothing. So, this was what his rejection had done to her, made a hard creature out of the girl who’d been so charmingly gullible to any passing beggar’s story of woe. Then, she might still be the girl