The Marriage Test Read Online Free PDF Page B

backing up a step and inserted her hands into the ends of her sleeves. “We have guests. The Duke of Avalon and the Bishop of Rheims are with us and we must see to their comfort first. Perhaps I will have an opportunity to speak with you after dinner is finished.”
    “Dinner?” the tall, lanky knight whispered with an edge of longing. Suddenly both knights were staring at her with such naked hunger that she was startled for a moment.
    “I suppose you haven’t eaten.”
    “No, Reverend Mother,” the shorter knight declared. “We are famished.”
    “Of course. You would be,” she said flatly, thinking that something about that pair of knights seemed familiar. “You may as well join us in the dining hall for a bit of food.”
    When they reached the dining hall, the abbess gave three of the elder sisters at the head table a private signal to vacate their seats. Then she introduced the count and his knights to the duke and the bishop … which was when she realized why “Sir Axel” and “Sir Greeve” seemed so familiar.
    “You appeared at our door some weeks ago, in a rainstorm,” she said.
    “And you were kind enough to provide us with food,” round-faced Sir Axel responded, beaming with gratitude.
    “What good fortune that we may now share with our seigneur the experience of your kitchen,” Sir Greeve said while glancing wistfully at the sauce-stained trenchers on the tables.
    “Yes. Fortunate indeed.” The abbess watched the trio ogling the food and thought that perhaps she should have demanded to know the count’s purpose straight off, then sent the trio on their way. But, they had left gold pieces to pay for a meat-day supper … “Seat yourselves, good sirs.”
    The knights nearly tripped over themselves hurrying to the seats the abbess indicated, where they waited anxiously for their lord to return from holding the abbess’s chair.
    Julia stood before the head table with a long, sharp knife in her hand, having just served the last hedgehog’s head to the duke’s son. She gripped the bone handle tighter as a chill ran up her spine.
    The man’s size, coloring, and powerful bearing were the same. And that voice … pinched, as if he held his nose … just like the wretch who …
    Then he looked up as he placed his helm on the table across from his place, and she gasped. He had the same dark hair—albeit somewhat tamed—the same angular face, and the same piercing golden eyes. The wretch who assaulted her as a beggar in the kitchen now appeared in the dining hall as a nobleman!
    She could scarcely see the abbess nod to her, indicating she should retire to the kitchens to arrange food for these interlopers. Peeling her white-fingered hand from the knife grip, she glared at the thieving nobleman and exited to arrange the rogue’s second dinner of the day.
    Every eye in the dining hall was on the three men as they began to eat. The two knights dug into their bowls, trencher, and shared sauceboat with relish, groaning with pleasure as they experienced each new taste. The count, however, carved his food daintily and wiped his fingers frequently, seeming uncommonly restrained in the face of such exceptional fare. Only occasionally could he be seen closing his eyes as he savored an especially tasty morsel.
    Where did the count come from? the abbess asked.
    “The south.”
    Why was he so far from home?
    “Summoned to court.”
    Where was he bound after that?
    “Here.”
    “You have traveled all the way from Paris to come
here?
To our convent?” The abbess hesitated for a moment, torn between openly demanding his purpose in coming here, and allowing their hospitality to lay bare his motives in a less public manner. “And why have you sought us out, Your Lordship?”
    Matrimony was the most common reason noblemen approached the gates of the Convent of the Brides of Virtue. The Order of the Brides of Virtue was known throughout the continent for taking in the nobility’s destitute daughters and