Ten for Dying (John the Lord Chamberlain Mysteries) Read Online Free PDF

started to shake, as if in sympathy.”Try to calm down. I need your help and you need mine. Give me some hint of assistance. Where do you receive the goods you send me? Here? Some other place where I might happen to linger, just by chance you understand? No one needs to know you told me anything.”
    “They’d kill us both. I can’t—” The Jingler gave an agonized cry and shot a shaking forefinger toward a corner of the room. “Something moved! Didn’t you see it?”
    Felix shook his head. “Probably just a shadow from the lamps.”
    “They love shadows!”
    “I assure you, I saw nothing.”
    “You might have missed it!”
    “I’ve spent nights at the empire’s border watching for Persians crossing moonless deserts. If there was anything in this room besides the two of us I’d know it.”
    “Other people can’t see the devils the way I do!”
    “Yes, you’re probably right.”
    The Jingler waved both arms in a frantic fashion. “Leave now! I am going to have to perform rituals expelling fiendish creatures for the rest of the day, thanks to your intrusion.”
    Felix had to stop himself from pulling out his sword. John had told him often enough that it was a good habit for a soldier on campaign but a dangerous one in the vicinity of the palace. “What about this delivery?”
    “What about it? Do your job and don’t ask any more questions. That’s what’s best for both of us.” The Jingler’s voice rose into a strangled shriek. With his wild expression, flailing arms, and maddening jingling, he resembled a demon himself.
    Felix shuddered.
    “Very well. I’ll leave. If you manage to calm yourself and change your mind about what you can tell me, let me know.”
    As he hurried downstairs Felix was shivering. He hoped Anastasia was still lounging in the bedroom.

Chapter Six
    Nibbling a sweetmeat, Anastasia sank back into a nest of couch cushions and studied the garden beyond the window painted on one wall. There was a yellow bird caught in the jaws of a lion almost concealed in a thicket. She licked her sticky fingers and wondered whether Felix would be back from his mission yet and how he had fared.
    The heat lying honey-like over the city did not penetrate into the reception room of the mansion owned by Antonina and her husband General Belisarius. Here, the air was heavy with the fragrance of lilies and roses spilling from enormous floor vases.
    Anastasia looked away from the fresco and toward that of the late Empress Theodora and her attendants, which took up the entire back wall. Surely Theodora would have known exactly how to coax forth any information she wanted without rousing suspicion. However, this afternoon she was not offering advice. The dead empress’ dark eyes stared fixedly into the room.
    “Antonina, a question.” Anastasia patted the knee of the woman perched at the end of the couch.
    “Yes, my dear?” Antonina’s garment was the same shade of yellow as the poor painted bird. It complemented her shockingly blue eyes. Her hair was the color of the moon, her chin strong. To an onlooker she would appear to be Anastasia’s age, but in fact she was much older.
    Anastasia pointed to the life-size portrait. “Doesn’t it upset you to sit in here and see Theodora watching even though she’s been dead for almost two weeks?”
    “Not particularly. You know how close we were. I greet her every morning. I envy her. Our dear Theodora will never age, whereas we…well…”
    “Aging is the price of living.”
    “And every wrinkle is more costly to me than a sack of gold.”
    “What wrinkles? You keep them at bay with those herbal potions of yours.” And, it was whispered though not too loudly, with the same magick she used to keep Belisarius to heel. It was common knowledge the general was besotted with her and overlooked, or simply failed to see, that his wife was a woman of less-than-impeccable morals.
    “You should see me when I awake in the morning! Sometimes I’m tempted to