Coulter, Catherine. Rosehaven / Catherine Coulter.

“You left without telling me anything,” Severin said, that deep voice of his soft and low. “You left me filled with the drug she poured down

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v throat. I do not know what you have done, but I know it is something I won’t like. I am not pleased, Graelam.”

Graelam grinned and slapped him on his unwounded shoulder. “Come inside and I will fill your ears to overflowing. Hastings, can my men have ale? Also there are some wounds for you to see to, if you do not mind.”

Severin turned to see her standing there, the early summer breeze ruffling the hair around her face. “See to Lord Graelam’s men. Fetch them ale. Graelam and I will have the Aquitaine wine if you and Dame Agnes have not drunk it all. Ah, yes, I will see to Graelam.”

“You will not hurt Graelam,” she said.

Severin looked as if he’d spit at her. But Graelam laughed. “See you, Severin, I have a protectress. Harm me not.”

“Go, mistress,” Severin said to his wife, and turned on his heel. She hoped his shoulder hurt.

She called out to Northbert.

“Keep your sword sheathed, Severin,” Graelam said easily as he wiped his hand across his mouth. “Else I might call upon your wife to protect me. Nay, don’t growl. This is excellent wine I brought you. Kassia’s father lives in Brittany, you know. He has vineyards in Aquitaine.”

“Graelam, whatever you did I know I will not like it. But I am ready. Tell me, what did you do?”

“The man you sent back to Richard de Luci, well, he was grateful to you for not torturing him-”

“Not torturing him? Christ’s bones, Hastings made him puke up his toes. He wanted to die. He was a pathetic scrap. All he did when he wasn’t puking was lie there on his side, his knees drawn up to his chin, moaning.”

Aye, but then he was well again and his body was intact. No broken bones, no bashed head, no cracked ribs. As I say, he was grateful to you. He believed you would slay him after he told you what you wanted to know, but you didn’t. You sent him back to his master.

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“It was Richard de Luci who nearly killed him since he had failed to dispatch you. But the man-Osbert is his name-he survived. When he had the strength, he came here, asking for you. When he heard that you were still abed, he asked for me. In short, Severin, I have done my best by you. You have one less enemy now.”

Severin felt the blood pound in his temples. “No, you would not do this to me, would you, Graelam? Tell me you did not kill that damned whoreson. You did, didn’t you? You dared to kill my enemy. He wasn’t your enemy, Graelam, he was mine, and yet you had the gall to kill him. And you said nothing to me about it. Nothing, Graelam, you bastard.”

Hastings heard Graelam laugh. She saw the fury on Severin’s face. She knew he was enraged even though his voice was low and steady and he did not move. Her father had always yelled his head off when he was angry, always. It gave everyone time to run because right after he yelled, he struck. But not Severin. Would he “strike?

Northbert had told her what had happened. Men, she thought, were they born wanting to hack and maim and destroy? Well, mayhap it was wise to destroy Richard de Luci. She eased closer. Severin was red in the face, the pulse in his throat pounding so furiously she could see it, but that was all.

“He is dead, his holding is without a master, and he has a daughter, I am told, who is now his heir. There are no sons.”

Severin said, as he clutched the wine goblet so hard his fingers showed white, “You were wounded. There is a binding around your arm.”

“Aye, but ’tis nothing. I imagine Hastings has already seen to my men. I lost no men, but four were wounded.” Graelam leaned back in Hastings’s chair, drank down the rest of his wine, wiped his mouth, and grinned hugely. “Ah, it was good. We ambushed the whoreson with the information Osbert gave us. They were eating their dinner. There were naught but twenty of them. We took the guards, then the rest was easy.” Graelam rubbed his hands together. “Aye, it was good to exercise my arm. Bloodletting always clears a man’s brain and makes him forget any pains he has.”

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