by Barbara Kyle
Sydenham hurried for the end of the table. Carlos saw it. He was about to lunge for Sydenham, but from the corner of his eye he saw the bailiff himself running toward him, dagger raised. Carlos responded instinctively, reaching for the hilt of his sword. He stepped away from the wall to give himself a broader field of play for his weapon, and onlookers lurched backward from the blade’s deadly arc. As the bailiff with the dagger reached him, Carlos swung around with his raised sword, all his weight thrown into the downward movement, giving it ferocious momentum.
The sword hacked diagonally into the bailiff’s face. The blade carved off half his chin. The tip sliced the artery in the side of his neck, then ripped a gash through the cloth and muscle of his opposite shoulder. Horror flooded his eyes. He dropped the dagger and clutched the scarlet pulp where his jaw had been. Blood gushed from the severed artery. He thudded to his knees and looked at his dripping red hands with amazement. Then he toppled. Dead.
Carlos heard the commotion around him—shouting, scuffling, sounds of panic. But he was calm now, no longer disoriented. No man in this room could have killed so swiftly.
He swung around to locate Sydenham. But other men had moved in around Carlos in a wide circle, and Sydenham was not among them. The men’s eyes were full of fear and aversion, as though they had surrounded a maddened wolf.
Carlos heard an icy voice inside his head telling him that he had just made the biggest mistake of his life.
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Copyright © 2008 by Barbara Kyle.
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ISBN: 978-0-7582-5064-3
Table of Contents
Books by Barbara Kyle
Title Page
Contents
Part One: May Day
1. May Day
2. Tyrell Court
Part Two: Faith
3. Chelsea in Summer
4. At Court
5. Smithfield
6. The Conscience of the King
7. News
8. The Conscience of the Queen
9. The Brethren
10. Chelsea in Autumn
11. Out with the Old, In with the New
12. The Brief
13. The Menagerie
14. The Rendezvous
Part Three: Hope
15. Spain
16. Blackfriars
17. The Devil’s Hive
18. The First Rescue
19. Master Cromwell
20. Speedwell
21. The Hold
22. The Bible
23. Dismissal and Despair
24. Shearing Time
25. Resignation
26. Midsummer Eve
27. Cromwell’s Summons
28. “Heresy!”
29. The Petitioner
30. London Bridge
Part Four: Charity
31. The New Jerusalem
32. The Elect
33. Immortality
34. The Garden at Freiburg
35. The Cardinal’s Hat
36. The Bell Tower
37. The King’s Good Servant
38. Smithfield
AUTHOR’S NOTES
Copyright