The King's Witch Read Online Free PDF Page A

not stay away long. Edythe wondered what this looked like to them, what she and Johanna looked like to them.
    Lilia cried, “Where are they? Oh! I can’t wait.”
    Gracia gave a little cough. “Get yourself busy, that will help. Bring me the basket there. Yes, that one, Lilia, don’t be a giddygadder, please.”
    Lilia brought her the basket, full of food and wine. “Gracia, you are such an old woman.” She fished out a cup. “My lady, may I give you to drink?”
    Johanna sat straight on her bench, her hands in her lap and her cheeks red with excitement. “Yes. I think the men are coming.”
    Edythe, in the corner, craned her neck to see down the street. A noisy pack of horsemen was striding toward her, in the lead a knight in a helmet with a tall red plume and a crown, a yellow banner floating above. Lilia was trying to pour wine and see the oncoming parade at the same time, and Johanna took the cup from her.
    She did not drink of it but leaned forward, her brows pulled down over her nose. “That is Guy de Lusignan,” she said. “Where is my cousin? I know Richard sent Rouquin on this quest.”
    Edythe went to her and took the cup before she spilled it; the other women were also canted forward to see the men pass. As he rode by them, the red-plumed knight raised his arm and shouted, “God wills it!” and all the women cheered and the people on either side whooped and yelled, happy enough to see them leave.
    Johanna said, “He had better have Rouquin with him, or he’ll get tossed in a bramble.” Now ranks of men on foot tramped by, irontipped sticks tilted against their shoulders, bows strapped to their backs. Edythe sat next to the Queen with the cup, her eyes following the marching men; did any of them think he might die? Many of them would likely die. She reminded herself this was the Crusade; they would go straight to heaven.
    Lilia cried, “There he is!” She lifted her scarf and waved it. “Rouquin! My lord Rouquin!”
    In a loud clopping of hooves more knights were passing, among them the Queen’s cousin, his head turned to talk to the swarthy man riding beside him. Johanna sipped from the cup, gave it back to Edythe, and pointed. “That’s his officer, Mercadier.” Rouquin paid no heed to the women, although Lilia screamed his name again and fluttered her scarf above her head.
    Johanna said, amused, “She shouldn’t set her lures for him; he’s light with women, he’ll give her nothing but a lot of trouble.” She took the cup and drained it. “Well, I think we’re done here. Let’s go back to the palace.”

    Johanna was receiving the important local men as one by one they came in to submit to Richard’s rule. She wore a gown of blue silk stitched with gold and a gold crown on her head. Under the full skirt she slipped off the shoes, which pinched her feet. When she had seen a few of the Cypriots, accepted their tribute, and proclaimed them under Richard’s protection, she called for a moment to herself, the steward shut the doors, and the pages brought out dishes of dates and bread and wine. Her women sat around her and they ate.
    Lilia said, “These people have such lovely clothes.”
    Johanna had been thinking much the same thing, that the ordinary merchants of this little island were more richly arrayed than even she, the Queen of Sicily. “It’s all the fabrics, which are very fine. I hear the Emperor himself oversees the weaving of it in Constantinople.”
    Berengaria came in with her women, and they made room so she could sit beside Johanna. They had not yet decided the issue of precedence, but Johanna meant to keep a strong hand on this and watched for her chance. Gracia said, “My lady, I have heard there is a market now, in the town, down by the beach.”
    “Oh,” Johanna said, clapping her hands, “we should go.” She turned to Edythe; the doctor had found a book somewhere and was reading it in her lap. “You’ll come. You said you needed honey.”
    Edythe