Angel's Assassin (7 page)

From the back of the room, servants balancing
trays of mugs and goblets filtered through the swarm of seated
people. Damien quickly spotted Marie as she came toward them.

“Come to Acquitaine for the cider?” Hannah
wondered.

“No,” Damien answered, watching Marie move
closer to him. She was carrying a tray with about ten goblets of
wine. As she came to the table they were at, she began handing them
out, randomly setting goblets before each person. A gleam of sweat
lined her brow.

“Did you come for the famous Acquitaine
bread?” Hannah asked.

“No,” Damien answered.

Marie rounded the table, passing Damien. She
paused to hand Hannah a goblet. Five goblets were left on the tray.
Something caught his attention, but Marie moved on. It was the
center goblet. Inner alarms sounded through his mind. He had seen
something amiss, but could not exactly place it.

“Then what did you come to our village for?”
Hannah wondered.

Marie walked toward Aurora, who was still
talking with others at a nearby table.

Damien turned his back to Hannah, his gaze
focused on Marie. She reached past two goblets that were positioned
on the tray closest to her, grabbing for the center goblet. She
handed that goblet to Aurora.

Damien moved instantly, stalking towards
Aurora.

Aurora’s hand closed over the goblet handle
as she smiled a thank you at Marie.

His walk turned into a rush and he charged
forward. “Stop!” he shouted.

Aurora lifted the cup to her lips as she
turned towards the sound of his voice.

He wasn’t going to make it.

D
amien swiped
a hand across the goblet, sending it flying through the air. It
thunked against the wall, the wine splattering along the stones
with a violent splash of red spray. The dark liquid dripped down
and disappeared amongst the rushes on the floor. One of the castle
hounds padded over to the spill and began licking the wine from the
wall.

Aurora stood absolutely still, her blue eyes
wide. Her hand was still raised where she had lifted the goblet,
her fingers now empty.

Around her, the room exploded into chaos.
Knights rushed Damien, pushing him back, hooking their arms through
his to pull him away from her. One knight drew his sword.

“No!” Aurora screamed, grabbing the knight’s
arm.

Damien was shouting something, but Aurora
couldn’t hear what it was through the pounding of blood in her ears
and the shouts around her.

“Stop!” she ordered in her most authoritative
voice. The knight hesitated, a scowl on his brow, but he relaxed,
lowered his sword, and then nodded at her. Aurora turned to
Damien.

He surged forward, his lips grit. The entire
mass of men around him moved as one beneath his strength, but then
he was shoved back by the sheer weight of their bodies.

Aurora stepped forward, trying to shove
between the guards and the knights. Jostled in the mix she ordered,
“Stop!” The men nearest her hesitated and then withdrew, stepping
back away from the tussle. “Remove your hands from him,” she
ordered the men huddled around Damien.

“M’lady!” one of the men gasped.

She didn’t look to see who it was. She moved
into the chaos to help free Damien. “Stop!” Finally, her voice
managed to seep into the fray. Her men at arms straightened beneath
her command. One by one she managed to get them to obey.

“What is going on here?” a strong voice
demanded, breaking through all the noise. It was her father’s
voice.

Damien ripped his arms free and came to stand
in front of Aurora, grasping her arms to hold her steady directly
in front of him. His gaze swept her face, resting on her lips. “Did
you drink it?

Those closest to them became silent,
listening.

For a moment, confusion swept through Aurora.
She glanced around to see everyone was just as baffled as she. Then
her gaze came to rest on the wall where the red wine had splashed
and was dripping to the ground in rivulets of red liquid. The wall
looked like it was bleeding. She looked back at Damien.

“Did you drink it?” he repeated sternly.

Fear coiled around her heart; her fingers dug
into his arms. She licked her lips and tasted the bitter tang of
the wine. “I…” For a moment she truly couldn’t remember if she had
swallowed any. “Maybe…” The tart taste was in her mouth. “I think
so.”

Damien straightened, but his hands did not
leave her arms.

“It was a sip, that’s all,” she insisted,
holding tight to him. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“What is all of this?” The wall of men parted
for her father. “Aurora?”

Aurora barely heard him. She stared at
Damien, watching his lips, dreading the words that would come
out.

“How do you feel?” Damien asked softly.

Aurora took a moment to consider. Her heart
hammered in her chest, but other than that… “Fine. Normal.”

Damien’s scowl deepened. He turned his head
to look back toward the kitchens.

Beneath her hand where it rested on his arm,
his muscles clenched tight with indecision. Then he shifted his
gaze to the wall where the wine had splattered.

Aurora followed his gaze. Through the mass of
concerned people surrounding them, some standing, some sitting, all
speaking in hushed tones, Aurora saw the castle hound greedily
slurping at the dripping wine.

Her father stepped up to her, his gaze
shifting from Damien to Aurora. “Are you all right?”

Aurora nodded, finally releasing Damien’s
arms.

“What happened?”

Aurora shook her head in puzzlement, and
looked at Damien.

He was glancing all around as if looking for
someone, and then he turned to her father. “I have reasons to
believe the wine was poisoned.”

Gasps sounded from some of the people closest
to them.

Gabriel snapped his gaze to Aurora. “How do
you feel?” Without waiting for a response, he whirled to Sir
Rupert. “Get an herbalist!”

The murmuring around Aurora grew louder as
the information spread.

Gabriel looked back to his daughter. “Do you
feel ill? Faint?”

“No,” she stated matter of factly. “I… I do
not feel ill.” She glanced at some of the people around her. A
knight scowled fiercely, worry evident in his stare. Kathleen, the
miller’s wife, held Teresa her youngest daughter to her side,
staring with concern at Aurora. “Father, we should continue this in
your solar.”

Damien moved away from her to the wall where
the dog finished licking up the spilled wine.

A tremor of uncertainty shivered through
Aurora. She looked at her father. “I am not sure what happened.
Damien --” She found him near the wall as he bent and picked
something up. The hound yawned lazily and sat down near the edge of
a table, waiting for any scraps to drop. “-- slapped the cup from
my hand.” She looked at her father again. “I am not ill.”

Lord Gabriel scowled as Damien
approached.

“It was the servant, Marie,” Damien said.

More murmurs echoed around them.

Aurora held up her hand. “We should continue
this conversation in the solar. Damien, will you escort me?”

He nodded to her, bowing slightly. She saw
him look into the goblet in his hand and frown slightly.

“Let me settle the men’s nerves and I will
join you shortly,” Lord Gabriel said.

“The herbalist?” Damien reminded.

Gabriel nodded. “We’ll have him sent to the
solar.” He moved away toward a group of knights.

Aurora turned and headed to the rear doors of
the Great Hall. A hound wandered over to Aurora’s side. It nuzzled
its nose against her palm. She bent and cupped its head in her
hands. “Hello, boy.” She scratched behind the animal’s ears. “Have
you come to check on my well-being?”

The dog whimpered.

Aurora smiled and then looked up at Damien.
His perpetual frown had eased and she was grateful for that, but as
her gaze fell, she saw he still held tightly to the goblet.

She walked into the quieter hallway and took
a deep breath. “You scared me,” she admitted.

“How are you feeling?” Damien wondered
softly.

She nodded. “Well.” She placed a light hand
on his arm and said kindly, “Everyone is wrong sometimes.”

“I am not wrong,” he insisted and raised the
cup toward Aurora. “I saw that woman, that servant, deliberately
pick this goblet and give it to you. Tell me why she would do such
a thing? I watched her do it. She was putting the cups down in
front of everyone, just placing them as she went. When she reached
you, she didn’t take the next one. She deliberately chose this
goblet.”

“Marie is a loyal servant. I’ve known her for
years…” Aurora spotted one of the guards posted at the door glance
sideways at her. She began to walk down the hall toward the
stairway to the solar.

Damien joined her. “There, look there. It was
marked.”

Aurora paused to look at the goblet he
pointed to. It looked like an ‘x’ scratched into the surface. It
was very faint, but noticeable now that he pointed to it. Doubt
crept into her for a moment, but she quickly replaced it with
conviction. “Marie would never betray me.” Aurora shook her head
firmly. “She would never hurt me.”

“Perhaps not,” Damien agreed. “But do you
know everything about her? Her friends, her enemies, her lovers?
People are sometimes forced to do things they don’t want to do to
protect themselves or to protect someone they love. Someone might
have forced her to do it. Or lied to her about what the wine
contained.”

“I think given the chance, people will do
what is right,” she said slowly. “I don’t think Marie would have
intentionally tried to poison me.”

“I think given the chance people will do what
is best for themselves,” Damien said. “Someone might have lied to
her or tricked her into giving it to you.”

“But there was no poison in the wine,” Aurora
said quietly.

Damien stared at her with an intense gaze and
Aurora began to doubt her conviction. Father has ordered an
herbalist, she reminded herself, and I only drank a sip. She nodded
and turned, leading the way to the solar.

They entered a stairway and a feeling of
nausea overwhelmed her. She paused and grit her teeth. Coincidence?
She rubbed her stomach and hesitated.

“Aurora?”

She looked for him. In the darkness of the
stairwell, he all but disappeared. “I’m not feeling very well,” she
admitted. The nausea rose into full-fledged pain. Agony flared
through her and she grit her teeth. She parted her lips and a groan
escaped. “Bring me to my room.”

Damien scooped her up in his arms, taking the
stairs two at a time. He moved quickly through the hallway,
following Aurora’s muted directions to her bedroom. He kicked the
door open to her room and eased her to her feet.

Aurora immediately rushed to the chamber pot.
Violent spasms wracked her body as she heaved into the pot. When
she finished, she slid down to her knees, weak and spent. Tears
rolled over her cheeks. She clutched her stomach as fiery pain
spiked up from her midsection and radiated out into her entire
body. She curled into a tight ball on the floor.

Damien picked her up, carefully laying her
upon her bed. He brushed her hair back away from her brow.

“I’m not like my mother,” she wept. “Why
would Marie do this? What have I done?”

Lord Gabriel skidded to a halt outside the
open door and then rushed into the room. His face was colorless,
his eyes filled with fear. He froze in his tracks when he saw his
daughter lying crumpled in a ball on the bed. He looked at Damien,
terror filling his face. “The dog is dead,” he said.

L
ord Gabriel
dropped to his knees beside his daughter’s bed. Aurora groaned,
holding her stomach. Gabriel desperately wrapped his arms around
her, cradling her in a tight embrace. He looked at the guards
standing in the doorway and screamed, “Get the herbalist
now!”

The guards disappeared from the doorway.

Damien stepped back from the bed. There was
nothing he could do for Aurora now. She would have to fight this
off herself. Still, he felt the weight of guilt settle heavy on his
shoulders. He should have been quicker. He should have stopped her
from drinking it. He brushed the thoughts aside. It would do no
good to place this blame on his shoulders. He was here for a
different reason. If he had killed her already, he would not be
feeling this guilt. This was sheer madness! She was already
supposed to be dead by his own hand, yet here he stood like an
anguished family member desperate for her recovery.

“Aurora, look at me,” Gabriel commanded. She
opened large, bright eyes filled with pain. He held her tight
against his chest, whispering into her hair, “You’ll be fine.”
Gabriel lifted desperate eyes to Damien. “She will not die,” he
vowed.

Aurora’s soft sobs and groans of repressed
pain made Damien clench his teeth. Another assassin? It did not
surprise him. Roke was playing him. This was a game to his master.
Yes, if he completed the mission, he could have his freedom. But
Roke was not going to make it easy. If someone else killed her, he
would never get his freedom from Roke. Damien knew he could never
allow that to happen. He knew he should have realized what Roke was
up to with the first assassin in the marketplace. Roke had no
intention of letting Damien succeed in getting his freedom; he had
no intention of letting Damien go. Slowly, Damien’s fists curled
tight. All Roke wanted to do was mock him and humiliate him.

As Damien watched, Aurora’s hand fell limply
over the side of the bed. Damien stared at her fingers. They were
so slender, so small and fragile. His jaw clenched tight. His gaze
moved back to her face. Even wracked with pain, she was beautiful.
And so good of heart. She had believed the servant girl was
innocent. Damien froze.