The Conqueror Read Online Free PDF Page B

overlook to please Eleanora. It was what
he had been retained to do, after all.
    “ Well. Thank you for this,
Taez.”
    The talk was that Lowren’s people had
been quite fond of him, he explained, voice lower now but still
strong and clearly heard in all corners of the great room. His
audience listened with rapt attention. This prize, whatever she did
with it, would reflect great glory on her crown and her
kingdom.
    Eleanora surprised him, which she had
done once or twice in the past.
    “ Good. Excellent.” Those
expressionless eyes stared right through Taez, and he trembled for
his head in that moment. “Send him up to my bedchamber immediately
after dinner.”
    The roar of laughter that rang forth
upon this remark was both gratifying and terrifying to
Taez.
    He had taken a terrible risk, and the
results were so uncertain—so nebulous, that he wondered at his own,
sheer, unmitigated gall.
    Quite frankly, he wondered just how
stupid a man could be. He had taken an insane risk, when he thought
about it.
    And yet it was true, too—far better to
buy the slave, return him to his people, and let him sow discontent
and confusion among his own loyal followers. Taez had a hundred
thoughts on that score, if only he had a brief moment to explain.
It’s not like he didn’t have a story to cover his backside. The
thing was to get a chance to explain, sometimes.
    With a wave of her wrist,
she had the prisoner taken away. With a look at Taez, he had been
admonished, chastened, and promised some sort of great reward, all
in one and the same moment. If she was pleased, that was—and as for
all of that sort of
thing, they would not know before the morrow.
    Eleanora, two husbands and a half a
dozen lovers later, was said to be notoriously fickle, and yet Taez
was pretty sure he wasn’t the only one who had discerned the fine
hand of policy in there somewhere. People would and did talk, after
all. There was pressure to marry, produce heirs, her life was
complicated enough as Taez was discovering.
    With his own face and neck burning from
the unaccustomed risk and its companion, cold, naked fear, Taez
settled back into his own place and prayed that she would not look
this way again.
    And yet if she did, he had better be
able to meet those eyes with the proper grace and poise.
     
     

Chapter Three
     
     
    With foreign dignitaries in attendance,
Eleanora had little choice but to be gracious and attentive at
dinner. To eat too often in one’s private quarters invited
speculation as to your health and your lack of love for your
subjects. It did not pay to be seen as cold and indifferent, or
even just unfriendly. To be a sovereign and a private citizen was a
contradiction in terms. Surrounded by courtiers and her ladies, it
could be amusing enough at times, and a dead bore at others. A
person had to eat after all, but heavy was the head that wore the
crown.
    Surrounded by her ladies, and with all
of the tables cleared, after a time she signaled that the serious
entertainment could begin, and the hogsheads were rolled in to
general acclaim. Pleading fatigue, she took her leave of the
ambassadors, legates and attentive nobles.
    One last look was enough to convince
her.
    Dancers skipped in, launched themselves
into the air, and tumbled in time to the music coming from a corner
where the royal band was ensconced. The guests would quickly forget
they were in her house, which was a fine thing.
    It was the essence of
hospitality.
    Eleanora took a moment to herself as
she always did at this time, and paid a short visit to her private
chapel, with only the Priest Dervent and her cousin Theodelinda in
attendance. After a short prayer to Neptune, Father of the Seas and
patron of her kingdom, she retired to her private toilet chamber,
where she made her private ablutions. Getting out of the stiff and
formal robes of state into something a little more comfortable was
blessed relief. The simple garment laid out for her varied only
slightly from the