The Excalibur Murders Read Online Free PDF

concentrate." But after a moment he couldn't resist asking. "Are you smitten with one of the twins?"
    She nodded and smiled, grateful for something to focus on other than Augustan Latin. "But don't worry. It's my mind I want to develop right now. I'm not ready for another betrothal, and I won't be for a long time."
    This caught him by surprise. "You were betrothed?"
    "Yes." Her voice took on a bitter edge. "To Mordred."
    "Good God."
    "Exactly. Why do you think I fled Morgan's court?"
    "I had no idea. Mordred! What a ghastly marriage that would have been."
    "We'd have been as cold and distant as Arthur and Guenevere. " She smiled sweetly.
    He frowned at her again, even more deeply, but rose to the bait. "Theirs was a political marriage, not a love match. Her father, Leodegrance, is a minor king in France. He thought the union would open up opportunities for grabbing land and money here. And Arthur thought the same thing in reverse. It wasn't long before they reached a stalemate."
    "Poor Guenevere."
    "Poor, nothing. She went into it with her eyes open, as an agent for her father's interests. As soon as she realized she would never get one up on Arthur, she moved out, found a convenient castle and set up her own court. Why she chose Corfe . . ." He wrinkled his nose. "Is there an uglier castle in England? They don't call it the Spider's House for nothing."
    "At least she had the good grace to realize that a queen of England ought to live in England. She could easily have returned to her father. Give her credit for that."
    "I understand there is bad blood between her and her mother, Leonilla. But she never stops scheming, Nimue. I spend half my time trying to anticipate her plots. She'd do anything to bring Arthur down. And it isn't just a matter of her father's business, now. It is personal."
    "I hear she's coming for the consecration ceremony."
    "Splendid. As if we won't have enough chaos to deal with." One of the ravens flapped its wings and flew out the window. "Guenevere has a pet ape. It is always with her; she keeps it on a silver chain. A lot of people have fun trying to tell the difference between it and Lancelot."
    "I've seen the queen but never him. Is he . . . ?"
    "An athlete. Tall, blond, strong, handsome and dumb as a sack of rocks. In one way it's not hard to see why she took him as her lover. In another . . . I've never understood why so political a woman as Guenevere would choose a man with no connections. No thoughts."
    "Maybe she enjoys the change." She held out the scroll. "Somehow this isn't the kind of thing I want to read just now."
    He turned thoughtful. "No. I suppose it isn't." He searched the scrolls on the shelf nearest him and held one out. "Here, this might be more the thing."
    "What is it?"
    " The Golden Ass. "
    She laughed. "Are you talking about this book or Lancelot? Or Arthur?"
    "Stop it. I tried to make friends with Guenevere when she first came here. She's a smart woman. Very. But when it became clear she'd never stop working against Arthur-- against us --I put some distance between us. There is a lesson there for you."
    "Yes, sir." She turned her attention unhappily to Latin.
    The weather turned harsh and stormy. Percival had been expected at Camelot within a week or so of sending the news about the Stone of Bran. As it turned out he was delayed at the Mersey River, which was swollen and impassable, for nearly ten days. Then he contracted influenza and was confined to bed for another five.
    Arthur grew more impatient each day without his relic. "Where is he?" he grumbled to Merlin and Mark. "Every-one's on edge."
    "Try and look at it in a positive way," Mark counseled him. "If nothing else, the delay is giving Pastorini time to construct a shrine that's genuinely worthy of such an important artifact."
    "And to waste more of the country's treasure." Merlin couldn't resist adding it.
    Arthur glared at him. "I want my stone. It will unify us all, it will stop all the fighting and bickering. I'm