The Sorceror's Revenge (5 page)

             
‘I have never been more certain in my life.’ Robert’s eyes suddenly gleamed with triumph.  Melloria was alive.    She had not known him but she lived and so did his daughter, for the child was clearly hers and of the right age.  ‘She has been ill and that is the reason she seems subdued – and perhaps her mind has been deliberately robbed of its memory.’

             
Robert felt the grief fester inside him.  What had happened to her in the months and years since they had parted.  The woman he had seen was Melloria and yet she was not his wife, the woman who had tortured his thoughts for so long.  How could she be so changed?

             
‘He hath bewitched her,’ he said, speaking his thoughts aloud.  ‘He is an evil sorcerer and he has cast a spell on her.’

             
The soldier muttered an oath and crossed himself, looking back at the house with a mixture of superstition and fear.

             
‘I will watch and report to you once I know the pattern of their days,’ the man said.  ‘You can rely on me, my lord.’

             
‘I know that Sebastien.’ Robert’s mouth thinned into a grim line.  ‘Next time we come, we come in force.’

5

Anne sat with her needlework in her lap.  Three days had passed since the visit from the peddlers and she was still troubled in her mind.  She had been embroidering a cloth for her bedchamber. It was complicated work and the thread was bright, a rich tapestry of red gold and blue not unlike one she had made once before.

             
Frowning, she tried to picture the room where the tapestry had covered a board and trestle.  She could see articles of gold and silver set out on the cloth, things of value similar to those the peddler had brought with him that day.  Trinkets had pleased her once she recalled for she had been pleased with a scent bottle fashioned of gold and set with rubies…not that ruby but others…

             
Her mind was surely playing tricks on her, because she could see herself wearing a gown and tunic of cloth of gold and around her neck there was a chain from which was suspended a fine ruby…the ruby the peddler had shown her that day.  She was almost certain that she had once owned it – but how could she have done so?

             
Anne shivered, feeling ice trickle down her spine.  Something was terribly wrong.  Why had the peddler looked at her that way?  Why did she seem to remember living somewhere else?  The rooms were much larger than those here in her present home; they were cold and at times the walls seemed damp.  She had covered them with tapestry to make them warmer and brighter, but the castle was old…

             
The castle was old!

             
Had she lived in a castle before she came here?  Anne’s thoughts were swirling in confusion.  The feeling that she knew the jewel and the peddler was growing in her mind and the fear was mounting.  She had a premonition that something bad was about to happen.

             
Looking up as Nicholas entered her chamber, she narrowed her gaze.  ‘You must tell me,’ she said.  ‘When did we marry – and how did we meet?  Did you come to the castle?’

             
‘You have remembered a castle?’

             
‘Yes, I think so, though it is very vague.’  Anne stood up.  ‘Please, Nicholas.  I am afraid that something is happening – something that may destroy us.  You must tell me the truth.  I love you and I shall not hate you even though you have not told me all…there is something you are hiding from me, isn’t there?’

             
Nicholas looked at her for a long moment, then, ‘I have wronged you by not telling you before, Anne.  I was afraid to lose you but now I think I must risk all and tell you.  Please do not hate me.’

             
‘I love you, Nicholas.  You must know that?’

             
‘I know that I adore both you and the child…’  He looked at her and his eyes were dark with anguish.  ‘You came to me one night when the snow was thick on the ground.  I found you at my gates and carried you inside.  Your time was very near.  You gave birth to the first child soon after we put you to bed.  Marta took the child to the wet-nurse in the village, because we thought you were dead…but you did not die.  There was another child and I had to cut you to get the babe out.  I loved Iolanthe from the moment I saw her…’

             
‘Oh, Nicholas…’ Anne stared at him, tears running down her cheeks as the words echoed in her mind.  She was not his wife.  She was not Nicholas’s wife.  The earth seemed to shift beneath her feet and her temples pounded.  It was all a lie.  All she had trusted and loved seemed to shatter into tiny fragments and become mist.  The mist was in her head and she could not think clearly 'I am not your wife. Iolanthe is not your child…but you love her so and she loves you.  I am not your wife…’

             
‘You are my wife in all but name.  Do not look at me so. It breaks my heart.’

             
‘Why did you never tell me?’

             
‘You were close to death,’ Nicholas went on as if he had not heard her.  ‘I fought to save your life, sitting with you day and night until you began to recover.  Even then I would not leave you to others.  You became the world to me…you and Iolanthe.  Without you both I should be nothing.’  His face worked with anguish.  ‘Yet I have wronged you for you had the right to know.’

             
‘I could not remember who I was.  Even now that you have told me I do not know my name – or the name of Iolanthe’s father…’

             
‘You may be the wife of a man called Robert, Earl Devereaux.  He married again within eighteen months of the night you came to me.’

             
‘So he did not love me.’  Anne’s eyes were dark with distress.  ‘You have loved me more than any woman deserves to be loved, Nicholas.  You are my husband.  I feel that I am your wife…I should be your wife.’

             
Nicholas moved towards her, gazing down at her face.  ‘Can you forgive me for what I have done?  Will you stay with me?’

             
‘I…am not sure,’ Anne said.  ‘I forgive you, Nicholas, for there is nothing to forgive.  Had you not saved my life I should have died out there in the snow.  Where was my husband that I was in such a dire position?’

             
‘If I am right he was with Prince Edward, attending a wedding in Spain.’

             
‘He left me at such a time?’  Anne’s expression became angry.  ‘If he had cared for me he would have stayed with me.  A man who cares more for ambition than his wife is not worthy of a woman’s devotion.’

             
‘Then stay with me…I beg you not to leave me, Anne.  I will do anything you ask of me.'

             
Anne was silent for a moment, and then she smiled.  ‘I do love you, Nicholas, but I am not your wife.  We are living in sin.  I must discover the truth for perhaps my husband would agree to let me go…there must be some way a marriage can be broken?’

             
‘I do not think it possible.  The church could grant an annulment but only if the marriage had not been consecrated.  Your husband might agree to a separation but we still could not marry while he lives.  I do not think your marriage could be broken unless your husband  – 
were dead
.’ He stressed the words, his meaning clear.  ‘If he were in his grave you would be free to live as you please.’

             
Anne shuddered.  ‘No, Nicholas.  You must not think such things.  I love you but I feel that what we have is wrong…I believed you were my husband when I asked you to come to my bed.’

             
‘I should have refused for I knew the truth but I loved you…wanted you.’  Nicholas’s voice broke in anguish.  ‘I knew that you would despise me once you knew what I had done.’

             
‘I could never despise you.  I do honour, respect and love you.  If I were free I would wed you tomorrow – but if we continued as man and wife without at least some kind of blessing from the church…’  Anne shook her head as she saw his face.  ‘I do not want to leave you, Nicholas.  I shall make no decision now.  Let me think about this for a while.’

             
‘Yes, you must think and pray.  I have always known you were a good woman, Anne.  Yet because of my selfish desires I shamed you.’

             
‘I am not shamed by what we did.’ Anne moved towards him, reaching up to kiss his mouth lightly.  ‘But I must think before I decide what to do next.’

             
A flame leapt in Nicholas’s eyes.  Anne knew he wanted her to promise that she would stay with him, but in all conscience she could not.  If she had a husband who still loved her it was only right that he should know he had a child.

             
‘My first child…’ she said belatedly for the revelation that she had two gone from her mind at the shock of learning she was not his wife.  ‘Did she die?’

             
‘I do not know.’ Nicholas looked at her sadly.  ‘I allowed the woman Marta to take her to the village and she ran away.  I have tried to find her and will continue to look for her, Anne – but as yet I have no knowledge of her whereabouts.’

             
‘My poor child.’  Anne made the sign of the cross over her breast.  ‘It is a sign that God means to punish me for my sins.’

             
It was the child she heard sobbing in the darkness.  Her lost babe was weeping and she could do naught to comfort her.

             
‘No, Anne, no,’ Nicholas cried.  ‘God does not punish the innocent.  You have committed no crime.  If you must blame someone blame me.  I sent the babe to the wet-nurse because I thought you already dead.  Marta stole the child.  I do not know why.’

             
‘I dare say she meant to sell her.’ Tears brimmed in Anne’s eyes and trickled down her cheeks.  ‘I must find her, Nicholas.  She may be alive still.  If she is suffering at the hands of cruel people…’  A sob broke from her.  ‘My poor child…’

             
‘I shall find her for you.’ Nicholas vowed.  ‘Whatever it takes I will search for her – to the ends of the earth.  Forgive me and stay with me and I shall bring your missing child back to you.’

             
‘We must find her but I cannot promise to stay forever.  I must tell the man who is by law my husband that he has a child.  If he will let me go and the church will bless us…then I shall be your wife, Nicholas.’

             
He went down on his knees before her, his head bowed.  ‘I swear that I shall find your child, Anne.  I love you and I will not rest until my promise to you is fulfilled.’

             
She reached out and touched his head.  ‘Do not kneel to me, Nicholas.  I love you too much to see you humbled thus.  I ask for your promise and your patience.  One day I may be able to come to you again, but until then I shall sleep alone.’

             
‘Your husband may claim you.  He may command your obedience.’ Nicholas’s eyes glittered, his tone angry, more demanding than she had ever heard from him.  ‘What will you do then?’

             
‘I have given you my word.  I shall sleep alone until this is settled between us.  You have my promise as I have yours.’

             
‘Then I ask no more.’  Nicholas rose to his feet.  ‘I have a preparation to make for a man who suffers from a disease of the fourth humour. It must be done this afternoon, but in the morning I shall leave and travel to…’ He got no further for the door of the chamber was thrust open and several armed men burst in.  ‘What…how dare you…’

             
Anne turned to look at the intruders.  She was trembling, her heart racing with fright as she stared at the face of the man who led them.  Dressed in mail and with a helmet over his face, he looked fierce and terrifying but she knew him just the same.  He was the man who had come to their home disguised as a peddler.  She had known there was something wrong then, for he was too proud and arrogant to be a humble peddler.

             
‘Who are you?’ she asked raising her head to look at him.  ‘Why have you burst into our home like this?’

             
‘I am the Earl Devereaux,’ the man with the angry eyes told her.  ‘You are my wife.  Melloria, the Countess Devereaux – and I have come to take you back.  This rogue stole you and kept you hidden, but I have found you at last.’

             
‘No.’ Anne cried.  ‘You are wrong.  Nicholas saved my life.  He is my true husband…’

             
‘He has enchanted your mind, caused you to forget me and the love we shared.’  The man approached her, reaching out to take hold of her arm.  ‘When you are back where you belong you will forget him.’

             
‘Mother…’ Anne heard her child’s cry.  ‘Papa…’