Read The Prophecy of Death: (Knights Templar 25) for Free Online Page B

travelling with her, the
     fact was that her mood was generally easy enough for them to read. It was clear that she was here to do the very best deal
     she could for her adopted country and her oldest son, so that he might inherit a good kingdom, but for all that, if there
     were any means by which she could embarrass or offend her husband, she would surely not hesitate to grasp it with both hands.
    ‘That,’ Simon said as they walked away from the Queen’s chamber to their own, ‘was boring in the extreme. I don’t know about
     you, but I’m not sure how much more of this I can bear.’
    ‘It’s all right for some,’ Baldwin admitted. ‘Fine wine, good food—’
    ‘Too damned rich.’ His friend grunted. ‘Give me some plain rabbit roasted over an open fire rather than all this coloured
     muck.’
    ‘… and yet I want to be at home to see my son. I worry about Jeanne,’ Baldwin finished. His wife had been so tired when
     he left her to set off for London, and all he could recall was that paleness about her features and the pinched look she had
     worn, as though his beautiful lady was overtired and cold.
    ‘I’d like to see my Meg again, too,’ Simon said sharply, adding, ‘and my daughter should have been married by now. All this
     wandering about France and back has delayed hernuptials. I doubt whether she, or her mother, will be too happy about that.’
    It was true. Simon’s daughter, Edith, had been betrothed for an age – certainly more than a year – but she was almost seventeen
     now. He would have to allow her to marry as soon as he could, and that may well mean as soon as he returned home to Lydford.
     He had kept her waiting too long.
    ‘Simon, I am sorry. I have been growing irritable without my own wife and children. I forget others may have the same regrets.’
    ‘How much longer do we have to stay here?’
    Baldwin shook his head. He had no answer to that. They had been sent here on the orders of the King, and their duty was to
     remain to ensure the Queen’s safety.
    It was a most peculiar situation, though, and one fraught with dangers for a rural knight and bailiff.
    Prior’s Hall, Christ Church Priory
    The Prior rubbed at the bridge of his nose and ran through the events again, from the moment the idiots had woken him.
    It was not only him. Mark and Hal had woken the whole priory. All had been deeply asleep, waiting for the bell to toll for
     Matins, and instead they were jerked awake by the screams of those two. Old Brother Anselm had thought that the end of the
     world was coming and nearly expired on the spot, poor devil. In truth, it was a miracle the deaf old stoat had heard anything.
    All had rushed to the barn as soon as the fools had announced their discovery, and the priory had been all of a twitter ever
     since. It would have been bad enough if the man was just one of the brethren. Yes, that would have been dreadful. But worse
     still was the fact of who he was: a friendof Sir Hugh le Despenser. No one disliked poor brother Gilbert. The man was a pleasant fellow, bright, studious, and keen
     to please.
    What was he doing there in the hounds’ barn? The man should have been asleep, like all the other brethren. Yet there he was,
     in the hay, with his throat cut. Something must have awoken him and made him rise and walk outside. A disturbance? No, surely
     not – if there had been something of that nature, someone else would have heard it. Another monk would have woken.
    Prior Henry swallowed uncomfortably as this thought rattled about in his head. Because perhaps another monk
had
woken. Perhaps it was a brother monk who had slain the poor fellow?
    But that would mean that someone had hated him enough to all but hack his head from his body. Surely that was no monk from
     Christ Church.
    No. It couldn’t be.
    Château du Bois, Paris
    It was while Baldwin and Simon were settling down in their chamber that the messenger arrived to ask them to return to the
     Queen’s