The Blood Knight - J. Gregory Keyes [153]
“Have you seen Mery? How did you find us?” An ugly thought occurred as the words slipped off his tongue, that Lady Gramme somehow was involved in the whole affair. It made a certain sense. She was a highly political creature, after all.
He didn’t voice it, but she must have seen it in his eyes. She smiled, dabbing his brow again.
“I’m not in league with Robert,” she assured him. “Please believe me when I say I would never lend him Mery for any purpose.”
“Then how did you come to be here?”
She smiled again, a melancholy grimace, really.
“I was mistress to the emperor for almost twenty years,” she said. “Did you know that? I was fifteen when I first shared his bed. I did not spend all that time on my back. There are few places on Eslen, Ynis, or Newland where I don’t have eyes, ears, and pending favors. It took me a while to find you and my daughter after you were moved from the dungeons, but I managed it. After that it was merely a matter of paying the right bribes.”
“How was Mery when you saw her?”
“Sleepy. Concerned about you. She doesn’t think you’ve been well. Now that I see you, I understand why.”
“I’ve been working. It’s taxing.”
“I daresay. Roll over.”
“Milady?”
“Onto your belly.”
“I really don’t see—”
“I’ve risked my life to speak to you,” Lady Gramme said. “The least you can do is obey my every whim, especially when it’s for your own good.”
Reluctantly, Leoff complied, careful to keep the sheet over him.
“Do you always sleep without a nightshirt?” she asked.
“It is my habit,” he said stiffly.
“Lack of habit, I would rather say,” she replied.
His back felt cold. He wondered if she had been sent by someone to slip a knife or poisoned needle into his spine so he couldn’t write Robert’s singspell.
He should have cared, but he didn’t; his outrage was still around someplace, but his dreams tended to misplace it. It took some waking distance from them for him to recall it.
Lady Gramme’s fingers brushed against his back, and to his horror he heard himself moan. It was the first really nice thing his skin had felt in a long time, and it was incredibly good. The tips began to tease gently into his muscles, pressing out soreness and tension.
“I was never trained for much of anything,” she said softly. “No coven education for me. But William hired me tutors, to train me in certain arts. The one who taught me this was from Hadam, a thick-fingered girl with dark, dark hair named Besela.”
“You shouldn’t—it isn’t—”
“Proper? My dear Leovigild, you’ve been imprisoned by a mad usurper. You think that proper? We’ll decide—you and I—what is proper. Do you like this?”
“I like it very much,” he admitted.
“Then relax. We have things to discuss, but I can practice this upon you while we do so. Are we agreed?”
“Yes,” he groaned as she worked up either side of his spine, then sent each hand kneading in a different direction along his shoulders and upper arms.
“It’s nothing very complicated,” she went on. “I think I can help you escape, all three of you.”
“Really?” He tried to sit up and engage her gaze, but she pushed him back down.
“Just listen,” she said.
When he didn’t protest again, she went on.
“An army has laid siege to Eslen,” she said. “An army commanded, or so it seems, by Muriele’s daughter, Anne. What chance they have of defeating Robert I do not know. He will have help shortly from both the Church and Hansa, but if Liery weighs in, this war could last for quite some time.”
Both of her hands had gone to his right arm now, her fingers digging deeply into the twisted tendons of his forearms. He gasped as he felt small spasms in his fingers, where he thought no feeling remained. His eyes dampened with mixed pain and pleasure.
“My larger point being that Robert is at the moment quite distracted. I have a few friends in this castle, and I believe I can take advantage of them to spirit you, Mery, and the landwaerden girl to someplace safe.”
“Surely that is too much to hope for,” Leoff said. “I would see Mery and Areana safe. As for me—”
“It is all the same,” she