Lady Isobel's Champion Read Online Free PDF Page A

Elise who seemed struck with shyness and would not look at him. ‘Who is this?’
    ‘A friend. My lo—Lucien, this is Elise...Elise, this is my betrothed, Count Lucien d’Aveyron.’
    Head rigidly down, Elise made her curtsy. ‘Good day, mon seigneur .’
    ‘Good day, Elise.’ The Count— Lucien —glanced through the door and back at Isobel. ‘Is your maid very sick?’
    ‘I don’t think it is serious, but she’s been put in the infirmary.’
    ‘What’s wrong with her?’
    ‘I am not sure. I suspect she ate something that disagreed with her. She has been most violently ill.’
    ‘Can she be moved? If not, I will send someone back to fetch her when she is recovered.’
    Isobel’s heart lifted. ‘I’m leaving before our wedding?’
    ‘If you are in agreement, I see no reason why you should not leave today. But Ravenshold is...unprepared for your arrival. I have asked Count Henry if you may stay at his palace here in town. I am waiting to hear if there is space for you.’
    Isobel felt a flutter of excitement and found herself smiling. She had not wanted to show pleasure that Lucien had at last come to greet her. She had meant to be cool, but he had caught her unawares with his offer to remove her from the Abbey that day.
    Today! All my life I have been shifted from convent to convent and now...
    Freedom!
    I must be calm. I must not let him see how I have longed for this day. Yet I must not alienate him either. I shall have to do my best to please him.
    Abruptly, her mood darkened. She could not forget that her mother had died in childbirth. Unless I want Mother’s fate to be mine, how can I welcome him into my bed?
    Crowding into her mind came another memory, that of her friend Lady Anna. Scarcely a month after a smiling and happy Anna had left St Foye’s Convent for her wedding, she had come racing back. Anna had been pale. She had lost weight. She had taken Isobel aside and started muttering darkly about the horrors—yes, horrors had been the word she had used—of the wedding bed. Anna had only just started when there had been a fearful clamour at the convent gates. Anna’s irate bridegroom had come to claim her.
    A blink of an eye later, Anna had left St Foye’s a second time. Isobel never heard from her again. A year later, she learned that Anna had died in childbed. Exactly as her mother had done.
    I may never be able to give him an heir. Mother tried again and again to give Father a boy. She died trying. Am I to die in like manner?
    ‘I shall send word to Count Henry’s steward, and see how swiftly arrangements may be made for you.’ Lucien sent Elise a charming smile. ‘If your friend agrees to accompany you, the proprieties may still be observed. Even the Abbess could not cavil at the arrangements. Well, my lady, what do you say?’
    Isobel had opened her mouth to reply, when a novice hurtled into the lodge.
    ‘Where’s the Abbess?’ the novice gasped. Her face was the image of distress.
    ‘Talking to one of the sisters,’ Lucien said. ‘Why?’
    ‘The relic!’ The novice was shaking from head to toe. ‘My lady, the relic’s been stolen!’
    Isobel froze. ‘I beg your pardon?’ When she had come from the convent in Conques, she had brought a relic with her—a scrap of cloth reputed to have come from St Foye’s gown. The relic was highly treasured by the nuns in the south, and it was a great honour to have been entrusted with transporting it.
    ‘The altar’s been smashed in the Lady Chapel and...’ the novice bobbed a curtsy ‘...excuse me, my lady, I must find the Abbess.’ She vanished as quickly as she had appeared.
    Lucien looked questioningly at Isobel. ‘Relic?’
    ‘A fragment of cloth that belonged to St Foye.’
    ‘You brought it with you?’
    Isobel nodded. ‘The relic is lent to this Abbey until the end of the Winter Fair. Since Father gave me an escort and I wanted to return the nuns’ hospitality, I offered to bring it. It brings pilgrims—’
    ‘And