‘Captain?’
‘Commander?’
‘You know the orders?’
‘Yes, sir. We shall not give up an inch of ground; Komnenos will enter neither the Palace nor Hagia Sophia.’
‘Hold to those orders come what may. If in doubt, look to Palaiologos for command.’
‘Yes, sir.’
Ash turned and broke into a run, but Lady Anna had vanished.
Where is she? She cannot have gone far…
He circled the Milion. She was racing past the myrtle bushes that grew alongside the avenue. His gaze sharpened as he saw who was after her—three of General Alexios’s mercenaries.
He raised his arm. ‘Lady Anna! This way!’
She swerved in his direction. ‘Commander!’
Keeping a close eye on the mercenaries, Ash unhooked his battle-axe and ran like the wind. He reached her by the buildings over the Palace Cistern. Wild eyed, she lurched towards him.
‘Thank God!’ Lady Anna’s chest heaved as she sucked in air. ‘Those men…’
Ash gripped his axe and looked past her. What the devil? The street was dominated by a large, half-naked man—mere sight of him seemed to have put the mercenaries to rout.
‘Holy Virgin, it’s Katerina’s Norman!’ The man was brandishing a sword and the mercenaries were backing off.
Shoving back her hair, Anna turned and went very still. ‘So it is.’
Yes, it was unquestionably the slave who had vanished from Katerina’s apartment. He stood in the middle of the avenue, legs braced slightly apart in the stance of a practised warrior. His upper body was covered in bruises and his sword arm was bandaged, but the grip on that sword told Ash that he was looking at a seasoned fighter.
What is he doing here? And how the hell did he get hold of that sword?
Whatever the man was doing, his appearance was timely. The German mercenaries must have decided that whilst an unprotected woman was fair game, one who could call on a Varangian Guard and a half-naked warrior with a sword was another proposition altogether.
‘My lady, where is Katerina?’
Lady Anna’s mouth opened and shut.
He gave her a gentle shake. ‘My lady?’
‘You…you know?’
Keeping the Norman in sight, Ash nodded and shook her again. ‘The time for pretence is over. Where is Katerina?’
Lady Anna was staring at the slave. ‘Safe. In Hagia Irene.’
Relief went through Ash like a wave. Safe! Briefly, he closed his eyes. ‘Thank God.’ He raised his voice. ‘You there! Slave!’
The Norman met his gaze, Ash noted that he did not lower his sword.
‘Yes?’
‘You will look after Lady Anna?’
‘Yes.’
Ash wondered whether he could believe him. Runaway slaves were not known to be reliable, and this one had managed to steal a sword. But he had put himself in harm’s way for Lady Anna…
Ash looked at Lady Anna, and jerked his head towards the soldiers mustered behind the Milion Arch. ‘Time is short.’
‘I understand,’ she said. ‘You had to know she was safe.’
He gave a curt nod. ‘Do you trust this Frank?’
Anna looked at the slave. The slave looked at Anna. She nodded and gave Ash a little push. ‘I will be safe with him. Go back to your men, Commander.’
Ash fixed the slave with his eyes. ‘You are to protect Lady Anna with your life. Take her back to the women’s quarters in the Palace. Understand?’
The Norman lowered his sword and held out his hand. Anna moved towards him. ‘I understand.’
At that moment a roar went up from behind the Milion Arch.
Chapter Thirteen
Katerina was kneeling in Hagia Irene, staring up at the black cross in the apse when she became conscious of the rustle of dark robes beside her.
‘Excuse me, my lady.’ Brother Dimitri was gesturing towards the west end. ‘Someone is enquiring after you.’
Katerina craned her neck, but she could only see monks. In the vicinity of the church entrance, a hanging lamp had blown out, grey ribbons of smoke were trailing through the air. ‘You opened the door, Brother? Was that wise?’
‘Under the circumstances, I thought it safe. He is waiting for you in the cloisters.’
‘He? Who…?’
But Brother Dimitri had bowed his head and drifted away to tend to the smoking lamp. These monks, as Katerina had already discovered, hoarded most of their words for their worship.
Picking up her skirts, wondering that she could have been so lost in her thoughts that she had not noticed the door being opened, she hurried down the nave. It could only be Ash, the monks would not have opened that door to anyone they did not trust—not today.
Please let it be Ash.
She swept by the mosaic saints gazing calmly from their lofty perches on walls and arches and entered the cloisters.
Sweet Mary, they have admitted him in his armour!
Ash was standing near a stone bench at the far end of the southern cloister, fingers drumming the hilt of his sword. He looked every inch the warrior. His battle-axe and helmet lay on the bench and when he saw her his forehead cleared.
‘My lady!’ Striding over, he took her hands. His face was strained, his hair was much disordered, but as those blue eyes searched hers, he gave her a lop-sided smile. ‘You are unharmed?’
Katerina gripped him. ‘Yes, but Lady Anna, she—’
‘Lady Anna is safe.’ Releasing a hand, he reached up and ran a finger gently down her cheek before sliding it round her neck in a hold that was suddenly, achingly, familiar. He stared soberly at her for a moment, tugged her towards him and hugged her fiercely.
His chainmail nipped her breasts through the stuff of her gown. It felt cold and hard. Alien. He is a barbarian, she reminded herself, staring at the shoulder-strap from which he hung his sword. She did not need to examine his battle-axe to know the edge would be razor sharp. An Anglo-Saxon warrior. This is what he is. For a moment she could not breathe and something shifted in her mind.
Bemused, she reached up and ran her fingertip along his shoulder-strap. This man ought to feel foreign to me, yet here I am in his arms and all I feel is…complete.
‘Ash?’
Warm fingers were massaging the nape of her neck. ‘Mmm?’
‘What happened to Anna? Tell me! I have been praying and praying. We were walking in the City when—’
His eyes became cool, his hand fell from her neck. ‘You left the Palace without an escort.’
Although he was no longer standing so close, he had retained one of her hands and was running his thumb back and forth, lacing his fingers in and out of hers, squeezing them. She had the impression that he was unaware of what he was doing and would be irritated when he realised.
‘I know it was foolish, but I needed to escape the Palace for a time. I needed to think.’
He said nothing, merely watched her through slightly narrowed blue eyes. Unreadable. Ash was a chilling sight in full battle gear, yet paradoxically there was something endearing about the way that dark hair was sticking up in untidy spikes; her fingers itched to tidy it. What a mystery he was, and what a rarity. She had made love with this man and he had ensured that her pleasure had been as great as his.
‘Ash, I had to get away! And then some soldiers appeared, I think they are in the pay of General Alexios.’
‘They were certainly not the Emperor’s men. I saw them, but you need have no fears for Lady Anna, she has found herself a champion.’
‘She has?’
‘Your Frankish slave.’
‘William?’
A dark eyebrow shot up. ‘I was unaware of his name, but suffice it to say that he found himself arms and seems to have appointed himself her protector. I have asked him to escort her back to the women’s quarters as soon as he may.’
Katerina felt some her tension ebb away. ‘Thank God.’
A couple of the brothers entered the cloisters and st
ood a few feet away, muttering to each other.
Releasing her, Ash pulled up his mail coif and shoved on his helmet. She bit her lip. With the noseguard hiding half his face, he was transformed in an instant to a terrible stranger. Scooping up his axe, he crooked his arm at her. So fierce looking…so polite. ‘Shall we?’
Hesitantly, she laid her fingers on his arm and he led her along the cloister, away from the monks. They turned a corner.
‘My lady—’ he cleared his throat ‘—or perhaps I should say Lady Katerina—if I may call you that?’
She came to a dead halt next to a carved column. Lady Katerina? ‘Commander…?’ She swallowed. His tone made it clear that this time he had proof of her name. Except that he does not know the half of it. He thinks I am a noblewoman, but I am only a potter’s daughter from Crete—a potter’s daughter who was once a slave…
I am a peasant and Ash believes me to be of noble blood!
When Katerina opened her mouth, he stopped it with his fingers. ‘It is useless continuing to deny it.’ He bent towards her. ‘I have seen your signature on the documents you signed at the slave market.’
She stiffened. ‘You have been through my belongings? I had hoped that you were above such tactics, Commander.’ She made to remove her hand from his arm, but he held it in place.
‘Gently, my lady, gently.’ He indicated a knot of monks standing in the central courtyard. One of them was staring at them, brow wrinkled with worry. ‘You are upsetting the good brothers.’
He propped his axe against a slim column. ‘Lady Katerina, I must soon return to my men. Unless you can discuss this sensibly here, we shall have to continue later at the Palace. For myself, I would rather have the truth now.
‘My lady, we are standing on hallowed ground. Do you think that here you might admit to the truth? I know you are not the Princess, but what is your full title? Katerina of…?’
At a loss as to how to respond, she shook her head. ‘I…I cannot say.’
His lips thinned. Behind the noseguard, his eyes were bleak. ‘I am trying to help you—is that so hard to believe?’
Katerina stared at him; the ache under her breastbone spoke of a desperate longing, one that—because of the gulf between them—could never be satisfied. ‘I want to trust you, but it is hard.’
‘Why, what on earth has happened to you? Someone has clearly hurt you, but surely you know by now you may trust me?’
Her cheeks burned. ‘Sir, you are right, I have been…hurt. In my experience men use women. They abuse them because they have stronger bodies and may force them to their will. Ash, there has not been one man in my life who has proved himself to be worthy of trust.’ There! She had revealed a little to him, not a great deal certainly, but it was more, much more than she had revealed to any man.
‘There is me,’ he said, quietly. ‘I have no wish to hurt you. Katerina, you may trust me.’
In an agony of indecision, she reached towards him, curling her fingers into his shoulder-strap. ‘My father,’ she began, ‘he…he…betrayed me.’ The blue eyes were fixed on hers. Intent and no longer quite so bleak. ‘And later there was a man who…’ But then Katerina’s throat closed up and she was unable to continue. Hanging her head, she managed to whisper. ‘I…I want to tell you everything, Ash, but it is too painful, too shaming.’
‘I am sorry if your experiences have given you a mistrust of men, but I am trying to help you. Listen…’ He lowered his voice. ‘As I mentioned, I do not have long, so I will come straight to it. You are of good family and there is your reputation to consider. We have had…intimate knowledge of each other and I should like to make provision.’
She wrinkled her brow. ‘Provision?’
‘In case there is a child.’ He sighed. ‘Lady Katerina, I am asking you to marry me.’
Marriage! Katerina’s breath left her in a rush. He is asking me to marry him?
‘M-marriage? You and me?’
‘Yes. Yes.’ Voice edged with impatience, he glanced at the monks in the centre of the courtyard. ‘In England I was considered to be of a good family—a thane’s son—but I realise that I shall never be noble in your eyes; your family will likely be disappointed in the match. I am an Anglo-Saxon, a barbarian.’ His cheeks darkened. ‘But this I swear, Lady Katerina, if you were to accept me, I—’
She stepped back, stunned by his offer. He thinks he is offering for a lady-in-waiting. He cannot possibly want me! ‘You were so careful. When you…when we…you made certain to…’ All too aware of the good brothers’ listening ears, it was Katerina’s turn to flush. She finished in a whisper. ‘You made certain…you were careful.’
He caught her wrist and drew her to him, so they were once more standing chest to chest and his body armour was hard against her. ‘Such methods are not entirely reliable, my lady.’
Katerina’s thoughts were spinning. Ashfirth Saxon, the Commander of the Varangian Guard, had asked her to marry him!
He had learned her name, but he was making a very large assumption—he thought her family aristocratic! He would never offer marriage if he knew the truth. In all likelihood, he believed her to be a cousin of the Princess, a member of the Doukas family. It would never have occurred to him to offer marriage if he knew she was a simple village girl.
‘I…you do not know me, Commander. In any case, as you realise, long before I met you, I had…relations with another man for a time and…well, to put it bluntly, it is quite possible I shall never conceive, so your offer, while honourable, is unnecessary.’ She tried to twist free and his grip tightened. She could scarcely believe it—he had offered for her and he was looking so sincerely at her. His expression was thoughtful, if a little guarded. If only I could tell him the whole truth. But I cannot. Ash must think marriage to a relative of the Princess would serve his ambitions. I must tell him the truth. But she couldn’t tell all of the truth. She couldn’t bear to see his eyes darken with disappointment; she didn’t want to watch that beautiful mouth curl with scorn. And that would be bound to happen, when Ash learned that she was just a potter’s daughter from Crete, a girl whom the real Princess had rescued from slavery.
She could, however, give him another fragment of the truth—he deserved that much. She held her head high. ‘Commander, I have to tell you, I am not a member of the Doukas family.’
‘Not cousin to the Princess?’
‘No.’
‘No matter.’ Easing his grip, he raised her hand to his lips, gently kissing the back as though he were truly courting her. Her heart twisted in an agony of longing. ‘My offer stands. I would be honoured if you would be my wife.’
Her chest felt as though it would burst with pain—why must wanting hurt so? Truly this man was exceptional, she ached to turn him down, but turn him down she must. This was the Commander of the Varangian Guard while Katerina, as Anna had so rightly reminded her, was only a peasant. She was the last woman a proud and ambitious man like Ash should be choosing. ‘No, Commander, I am sorry, but I cannot marry you.’ Finally, she tugged her hand free. Her skin was burning where he had kissed it.
He stood very straight, a muscle flickered in his jaw. ‘No?’
‘No, sir, I am sorry.’
He gave a brusque nod and turned away to frown at the axe leaning against the column.
Katerina’s eyes smarted, hastily she averted her head. Through a mist she saw that the sun had broken through the cloud and was shining on the centre of the courtyard where the monks were standing. A sparrow flew to the edge of a puddle and started pecking about. Surreptitiously she wiped away a tear. When she had first walked into the cloisters, his arms had felt like home to her, but now…now she was in exile. She had never felt so alone.
‘So be it.’ Ashfirth swung back to her and offered her his arm. ‘I have time to escort you to the Palace gate.’
‘Commander, I—’
‘My lady, I must ensure your safe return.’
‘Thank you, Commander.’
They l
eft the cloisters and passed the lines of saints watching from the walls. As they approached the studded oak door, he paused. ‘Lady Anna knows your identity?’
‘Yes.’
‘But you will not tell me?’
‘No, Commander, I will not.’
His expression hardened and the eyes behind that noseguard became so cold that it seemed impossible that Katerina had ever kissed this man, let alone shared a bed with him.
‘Before we leave, my lady, you may rest assured that while I know you to be an impostor, I shall not reveal it to anyone. For the time being, as far as everyone in the Palace is concerned, you shall remain the Princess Theodora.’
She sighed in relief. ‘Thank you, sir.’
A monk came out of the shadows to open the door and they left the church.
Ashfirth’s blue eyes were sombre. ‘I cannot promise to protect you indefinitely, but as long as this uncertainty continues, I see little point in revealing you as an impostor.’ He gave a bitter laugh. ‘It would seem that the General’s bid for the throne is working in your favour.’
‘How so?’
‘In normal circumstances, the Empress would have summoned you to meet her in her chambers. You have been spared that trial.’ He continued down the path, battle-axe resting on his shoulder, expression distant. ‘You would also have been summoned to the Doukas apartments. Did you know that General Alexios is married to Irene Doukaina?’
Katerina stared at him, trying to follow the thread of his thoughts. What a tangle! Clearly, relationships in the Palace were a web of complexity. ‘Princess Theodora is related to General Komnenos’s wife? As well as to the wife of the current Emperor?’
‘Just so.’
‘Then if General Alexios succeeds in becoming Emperor, Princess Theodora’s place at Court will be assured?’
‘Exactly. As will the places of other members of her family…her cousin, for example.’
‘For Princess Theodora’s sake, I am glad that is the case. But, Commander, I have already told you…the Princess and I are not related.’
He stopped mid-stride to look frowningly at her. And then he set off again, escorting her swiftly through the milling crowd in the square outside Hagia Sophia. One thought occupied Katerina’s mind. Ash thinks this rebellion will end badly for him. By the time the bronze column stood behind them and the Palace walls loomed up in front of them, her throat was tight with dread.
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