Threads of Silk Read Online Free PDF

unmarried chevaliers who were skilled swordsmen and anxious for adventure, had accompanied him on the privateering mission against Spain. The others, the married and those content to remain at their positions here in Vendôme, had stayed behind. Even so, there was not a monsieur among any of his loyals, whether men-at-arms or castle guards and lackeys, that Fabien had not chosen with care.
    The bungalow was ahead, a small light glowing in the main window. Fabien’s gaze searched the area — nothing stirred. Gallaudet returned with Julot.
    “No one has come, Monseigneur. Captain Dumas’s wife came out and returned, but that is all,” Julot said in a low voice.
    Fabien disliked the thought of barging into the bungalow with the man’s wife there.
    “Knock and tell him I wish to see him at the castle,” he told Gallaudet.
    “If what you have heard is true, he is likely to slip out the back.”
    He motioned for Julot to move to one side of the bungalow. Fabien made for the shadows and came around the other side to watch the window. Gallaudet had gone to the front door and was speaking with Dumas’s wife. Fabien waited in the shrubs unseen. All was still, then came a rustle of movement. The man had climbed out the low window with a satchel on his shoulder.
    The man held a sword, but his face was in shadow. Fabien felt a moment of grief. This was the captain of his home guard, a monsieur Fabien had trusted above many others . That his character had a price of betrayal was a stinging disappointment; he would never have thought it of him. Dumas’s hearty cheer tonight was naught but hypocrisy. Honneur in a man was as priceless in Fabien’s estimation as virtue in a great woman.
    Disappointment over Dumas’s betrayal turned swiftly to anger. Fabien lifted the point of his sword. Within the bungalow, another lamp was lit and the glow came through the window and fell across the escaping man’s face. It was not Captain Dumas!
    Fabien stepped forward, sword lifted. “So, you join my traitorous captain. Where is he?”
    A lean, dark young man whom Fabien knew as Sully turned sharply at the sound of his voice.
    “Monseigneur, I — I am no traitor to you, I had naught to do with it.”
    “Where is Dumas?”
    “Dumas?”
    Fabien’s sword leapt to life and pricked dangerously close to his jugular.
    “I am in no fair mood for games, Sully.”
    The guard fell to one knee, his sword clattering to the stone walkway.
    “Monseigneur, I confess all! His wife told me he left soon after your arrival when he saw the boy seek out Gallaudet. The boy did not know much, only that his Oncle Dumas had met with the Comte Maurice Beauvilliers.”
    Maurice! That pariah! He’d managed to bribe the captain of the guard! How much had he paid Dumas?
    “Go on. Be quick.”
    “I heard Gallaudet knew of the captain’s treachery, so I came here to find him, but he’d already fled.”
    Gallaudet appeared in the open window and leaned out. “Monseigneur, we have the captain’s wife. Do you wish to speak with her?”
    Fabien stepped back from Sully and pointed him toward the front of the bungalow with his sword.
    “Inside,” he said roughly. “We shall see if your testimony bears with hers.”
    Madame Dumas was in tears, sitting hunched in a chair when Fabien entered with the guard Sully. Her bent figure, the rough worn hands that clasped and unclasped in her lap, softened his mood. Fabien gestured to Julot to remove Sully’s weapons.
    “Captain Dumas has already escaped, Monseigneur,” Gallaudet said. “Would you that I run this other traitor through with my blade?” He cast Sully a cold look.
    “One’s enemies are always best dead,” Julot said, eyeing Sully with scorn as beads of sweat formed on his forehead. “Let me have him, Monseigneur, and spare you the trouble.”
    Fabien saw the anxiety on the poor woman’s face, for her husband was a worse traitor than Sully. Her eyelids were red and puffed from crying. He vaguely