by Amy Mullen
The youngest de Vere regarded her nursemaid as her father waved his hand, indicating she could be excused. She ran from the dais and pulled Hesse up the steps toward the solar. Gemma felt safe enough to talk to her father after Isabel departed. He remained quiet throughout the meal. What was he hiding from her?
"Father," she said lightly, almost as if asking a question.
After a long moment, he raised his gray eyes to meet hers. She studied him in the limited light cast from the dancing flames in the fireplace built into the stone wall beside them. He appeared alarmed and hesitated before he spoke. "I mean it, Gemma. We are to look forward to your brother's return to bring some happiness back to our home."
"But Father," she leaned toward him and whispered so only he could hear her, "what of Minna? What happened to her? Did she fall? How long was she outside the walls? Was she in the water long?"
Her father sighed. "She drowned, but 'twas not like Minna to be near the rivers. Her husband has said she was scared of the water and could not swim. I fear I do not know if her death was accidental or not, but it does not appear to be so. She had marks upon her neck, as if she were choked." Blaise paused. Horror and sadness spread across Gemma's delicate features, distorting her beauty.
"The ale-master has pleaded innocence. Some always believe the spouse is to blame, but I hesitate to believe it was he. I feel he is innocent, but because of the marks upon her neck, I can only assume she was killed. Mayhap she was thrown into the river to cover it up. Had her kirtle not twisted about a dead tree near the edge of the river, she might have floated down the Thames, and we would simply have thought her missing or run away." Blaise put his head down as he finished and said no more.
Gemma sat silently, staring at the back of her hand. Minna died for some unknown reason. Her father did not think it was an accident. Someone harbored a hardened and blackened heart. Did Minna's husband have such a hidden heart, one that would cause him to end her life?
The sounds of pounding feet and shouting permeated the quiet hall. "Blaise, come quickly!" It was Oliver. His voice echoed off of the walls, and everyone stopped mid-motion. An eerie calm settled but only momentarily.
Fear took root in Gemma's brain and shot through to her fingertips. Her body went rigid, and she felt momentarily frozen in place, sitting at the dais with most of her meal still in front of her, uneaten and forgotten.
She tried to stand, but she could not balance. Falling backward, she struggled to right herself before she hit the unforgiving, stone floor. The alarm and urgency in the seneschal's voice flooded her mind with worry. Unable to face another calamity that day, she steadied herself and did something out of character. Instead of following her father, she strode quickly to the steps to join her sister in the solar. For the first time in her nineteen years, she did not wish to know.
Table of Contents
Her Darkest Knight
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Epilogue
About the Author
Also by Amy Mullen
