The Jester

I tried to focus on her questions. It was all too fuzzy and hurtful. I just said, “No.”

“Are you an outlaw?” the second woman’s voice intoned from above.

I struggled to see a lavishly robed lady, clearly royal, atop a stu

“I assure you, madame,” I said, doing my best to smile, “I am benign.” I saw my tunic matted with blood. “Regardless of how I look.” Sharp pangs of pain now lanced my stomach and thigh. I had no strength. With a gasp, I fell back once more.

“Where do you head, Monsieur Rouge?” the golden-haired maiden asked.

I had no idea where I was. Or how far I had traveled. Then I remembered the boar. “I head to Treille,” I said.

“To Treille,” she exclaimed. “Even if we could take you, I fear you will die before you reach Treille,” the maiden said with concern.

“Take him?” the older lady questioned from above. “Look at him. He is covered with the blood of who knows whom. He smells of the forest. Leave him, child. He will be found by his own kind.”

I wanted to laugh. After all I’d been through, my life was being bargained for by a couple of bickering nobles.

I replied in my finest accent, “No need to fret, madame, my squire should be arriving at any moment.”

Then the young maiden winked at me. “He seems harmless. You are harmless, aren’t you?” She looked into my eyes. A lovelier face I hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Only to you.” I smiled faintly.

“See?” she said. “I vouch for him.”

[94] She tried to lift me, appealing to two guards in bucket helmets and green tunics for help. They glanced toward their lady, the older of the women.

“If you must.” The grand lady sighed. She waved and the guards responded. “But he is your charge. And if your concern is so great, child, you will not mind giving up your horse.”

I tried to push myself to my feet, but my strength was not there.

“Do not struggle, red hair,” the blond maiden said. One of the accompanying guards, a big, hulking Moor, lifted me by the arms. The lady was right. My wounds were severe. If I slipped back into unconsciousness, I didn’t know if I would ever wake up again.

“Who saves me?” I asked her. “So I will know who to bless in Heaven should I pass on.”

“Your own smile saves you, redhead.” The maiden laughed. “But should the Lord not feel as favorably… I am called Emilie.”

Chapter 30

I AWOKE, this time with a sense of peace and the warmth of a fire about me. I found myself in a comfortable bed, in a large room with stone walls. A bowl of water sat on a wooden table to my right.

Above me, a bearded man in a scarlet robe shot a satisfied grin at a portly priest at his side.

“He wakes, Louis. You can go back to the abbey now. It seems you are out of a job.”

The priest lowered his flabby face in front of mine. He shrugged. “You have done well, Auguste… on the body. But there is also the matter of the soul. Perhaps there is something this blood-spotted stranger would like to confess.”

I wet my lips, then answered for myself. “I am sorry, Father. If it’s a confession you’re looking for, you might get a better one out of the boar that attacked me. Certainly a better meal.”

This made the physician laugh. “Back among us for only a second, Louis, and he’s sized you up.”

The priest scowled. It was clear he didn’t like being the brunt of mockery. He threw on a floppy hat. “Then I’m off.”

The priest left, and the kindly-looking doctor sat down beside me. “Don’t mind him. We had a bet. Who got you-he or I.”

[96] I raised myself up on my elbows. “I’m glad to have been the subject of your sport. Where am I?”

“In good hands, I assure you. My reputation is that I’ve never lost a patient who wasn’t truly sick.”

“And where am I?”

He shrugged. “You, sir, I’m afraid, are truly very sick.”

I forced a weak smile. “I meant the place, Doctor. Where am I taken?”

The physician gently patted my shoulder. “I knew that, boy. You are in Borée.”

Borée … My eyes widened in shock. Borée was among the most powerful duchies in France. Three times the size of Treille. Borée was also a four-day ride from Treille, but north. How had I ended up here?

“How long… have I been in Borée?” I finally asked.

“Four days here. Two more along the way,” the physician said. “You cried out many times.”

“And what did I say?”

Auguste wrung out a cloth from the bowl and placed it across my forehead. “That your heart is not whole, though not from any boar wound. You carry a great burden.”

I did not try to disagree. My Sophie lay somewhere-at Treille. And Treille was a week away on foot. I still felt her alive.

I pushed myself up. “You have my thanks for tending my wounds, Auguste. But I have to go.”

“Whoa.” The physician held me back. “You are not yet well enough to go. And do not thank me. I merely applied the salve and cauterized the wounds. It is the lady Emilie who deserves your thanks.”

“Emilie … yes…” Through the haze of my memory I brought back her face. I had thought she was Sophie. All at once, flashes of my journey here came to me. The Moor constructed a harness for me. The lady gave up her own mount for me and walked behind.

[97] “Without her, pilgrim,” the doctor said, “you would have died.”

“You are right, I truly owe her thanks. Who is this lady, Auguste?”

“A soul who cares. And a lady-in-waiting at the court.”

“Court?” My eyes bolted wide. “What court do we speak of? You said you were commanded to my care. By whom? Who is it that you serve?”

“Why, the duchess A

Every nerve in my body seemed to leap to attention. I could not believe it. I was in the care of a cousin to the King of France.

The doctor smiled. “You have done yourself well, boar-slayer. You rest in their castle now.”

Chapter 31

I SAT UP in bed, confused and shocked.

I did not deserve this. I was no knight, no noble. Just a commoner. And a lucky one at that-fortunate not to have been ripped to shreds by a beast. My ordeal came back to me, my wife and child. It had been more than a week since I set out to find Sophie.

“Your care is most appreciated, Doctor, but I must leave. Please thank my gracious hostess for me.”

I got up out of bed but managed to limp no farther than a couple of painful steps. There was a knock at the door. Auguste went to see who was there.

“You may thank the lady yourself,” the doctor said. “She has come.”

It was Emilie, adorned in a dress of linen gilded with golden borders. God, I had not been imagining her. She was as lovely as the vision from my dreams. Except her eyes shimmered soft and green.

“I see our patient rises,” Emilie exclaimed, seemingly delighted. “How is our Red today, Auguste?”

“His ears are not injured. Nor is his tongue,” the doctor said, prodding at me.

I didn’t know whether to bow or kneel. I did not speak to nobles directly unless addressed. But something made me look [99] into her eyes. I cleared my throat. “I would be dead if not for you, lady. There is no way I can express my thanks.”

“I did what anyone would do. Besides, having vanquished your boar, what a shame it would’ve been if you had become the di

Auguste pushed qver a stool and Emilie sat down. “If you must show gratitude, you can do so by permitting me a few questions.”

“Any,” I said. “Please ask.”

“First, an easy one. What is your name, redhead?”

“My name is Hugh, lady.” I bowed my head. “Hugh De Luc.”

“And you were on your way to Treille, Hugh De Luc, when you encountered the boorish boar?”