The Spymaster's Protection Read Online Free PDF Page A

her husband friends.
    The Templars were indebted to Reynald from his years as Prince
of Antioch, for he had given them a castle he had captured in Alexandretta.
Master de Ridefort, the current Grand Master, was a close friend of Reynald and
her father. They had all conspired to put Queen Sibylla and her husband, Guy
Lusignan, on the throne in Jerusalem after the death of King Baldwin and his
young nephew last year.
    "I have met him. Baldwin, the Leper King, distrusted him
immensely, if you will forgive me for saying so. Queen Sibylla and King Guy
feel differently, but that is undoubtedly no surprise to you or your
house."
    With relief, Gabrielle heard the disdain in his voice for her
father and husband. "I have absolutely no interest in the political
intrigues of our precarious kingdom. I do know that Saladin is growing in
strength, while we bicker and fight over who should rule. Sadly, we have very
poor choices since Baldwin the IV died."
    Lucien stared at her appreciatively. "For someone who has absolutely no interest in court intrigue, you at least know who the
players are."
    "How could I not? My husband is being called a kingmaker.
I live in Jerusalem now, not at Kerak. And I am at court frequently. Queen
Sibylla is a generous patron of the orphanage."
    "An interesting woman," he commented, thoroughly
intrigued by the unusual woman beside him.
    "Mayhap the men in this kingdom should have let her rule
on her own. I have heard she wanted to marry Guy of Lusignan, but few women have
any true choices in marriage."
    "Maybe princesses do. She and her mother certainly
badgered Baldwin for many months to get his permission to marry Lord
Lusignan."
    Gabrielle gave him an icy look. "Well, most noblewomen
are sold into marriage, sometimes one after another, from the age of
fourteen."
    "Is that how old you were, mi'lady?" Lucien asked
gently, knowing he should not care.
    "Aye."
    God's blood! Lucien thought. Reynald would have been two score
and five, thirty years older than this young woman! The practice of arranged
and bartered marriage had never seemed so abhorrent to Lucien as it did now.
Undoubtedly, her father had gained a great deal from the arrangement. Lucien
knew he had been minister to King Amalric, and had been gifted with the small
fief of Transjordan and the castle of Kerak before Amalric's death. Since
Reynald had married this heiress, he had more than tripled the fief, for it was
now one of the biggest and most strategic in Palestine. Lord Chaumont was a
wealthy and even more powerful man now than he had been a decade and a half
ago.
    "You are very straightforward about your feelings, lady.
That is uncommon."
    "And unwelcomed, no doubt."
    "Not at all. It is most pleasing to me. Lies and
subterfuge compose my life. I have grown weary of them."
    Gabrielle stared at him, surprised and intrigued. She wondered
what he did for the Order, but decided not to ask, as she barely knew him.
"Well, I doubt you should be conversing with me, frère," she finally
concluded. "Your brothers seem a bit perplexed by it." Her eyes
shifted to where his men stood near their horses, eating and drinking, but
watching them as well. "Templars are forbidden from fraternizing with
women, are they not? Are we not too sinful and tempting for any of you to even be
near?"
    Lucien responded with a bark of laughter. "So I am
constantly reminded, though it is a practice more suited to words than
deeds."
    Gabrielle frowned, and he elaborated.
    "We are more soldiers than monks. We are not all
cloistered away in moldy, secluded monasteries. We cannot completely distance
ourselves from women. Though we are to have no regular discourse with them, it
happens occasionally.”
    She wondered if he was a Templar true to all of his monastic
vows. While she had lived at Kerak with Reynald, she’d met many who were not
men of good and holy repute. She felt compelled to find out more about this
one.
    “How long have you been in Outremer, Brother Lucien?"
    “For over