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“It won’t!” he cut across her urgently. “None if it will. Byzantium is safe, at least from Charles of Anjou. His whole fleet is at the bottom of Messina harbor. I saw it myself. The crusade will never happen.” The joy and relief welled up inside him. He wanted to take her in his arms and hug her so hard that he lifted her off her feet, whirled her around. He ached to do it with an almost physical pain. But it would not end there.
“You don’t have to leave…,” he said.
She met his gaze, studying him. “Yes, I do. Helena had friends, allies. They will know I was responsible for her betrayal to Michael. They killed her in the palace. Broke her neck. They won’t forgive me for that.”
He tried to imagine it, the passion and violence.
“And I have Michael’s letter of pardon for my brother,” she went on. “I must take it…”
“To Jerusalem?”
“And then Sinai.”
If she was not here, what use was Byzantium without her?
“Are you going back to Venice?” Her voice caught on the words.
“No.” He shook his head fractionally. “I was one of those who set the fleet on fire.” Why the sudden modesty in front of her? Because boasting was shallow and in the end without meaning. What he wanted above anything and everything else was to go with her to Jerusalem, not only the Jerusalem of the world, but the destination of the heart.
“Shachar doesn’t have to leave Byzantium,” he said softly. “He’ll be safe here. I’ll go with you-if I may?”
The color swept up her face again, but this time she did not look away. “I’m… I’m not a eunuch anymore…”
“I know.”
“Do you?” It was a question. He saw the fear in her eyes. Something hurt her almost more than she could bear. Her body was stiff, as if pain filled her and ran out of control.
What did she believe he meant? “As your husband,” he said quickly.
She wanted to look away, but this was the moment when the last deceit must go, whatever it cost. “I ca
“I can live without children,” he said quietly, touching her cheek with his fingers. “But I ca
She reached up and closed her hand over his, putting it to his lips. “I will,” she promised. “I will.”
Book List
Byzantine Dress: Representations of Secular Dress in Eighth to Twelfth-Century Painting (The New Middle Ages) by Je
Byzantine Monuments of Istanbul by John Freely and Ahmet S. Cakmak
Byzantium and Venice: A Study in Diplomatic and Cultural Relations by Donald M. Nicol
Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire by Judith Herrin
The Christian East and the Rise of the Papacy: The Church 1071-1453 A.D. (Church History Vol.4) by Aristeides Papadakis and John Meyendorff
Chronicle of the Popes: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Papacy over 2000 Years by P. G. Maxwell-Stuart
Constantinople: Istanbul’s Historical Heritage by Stephane Yerasimos
Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium by Jonathan Harris
The Crusades: A Short History by Jonathan Riley-Smith
Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West: 1258-1282: A Study in Byzantine-Latin Relations by Deno John Geanakoplos
Every Day Life in Byzantium by Tamara Talbot Rice
Flavours of Byzantium by Andrew Dalby
Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople by Jonathan Phillips
Geography, Technology, and War: Studies in the Maritime History of the Mediterranean, 649-1571 (Past and Present Publications) by John H. Pryor
God’s War: A New History of the Crusades by Christopher Tyerman
Hagia Sophia: Architecture, Structure, and Liturgy of Justinian’s Great Church by R. J. Mainstone
The Hagia Sophia by Kariye Museum
The Icon by Kurt Weitzma
The Last Centuries of Byzantium 1261-1453 (Second Edition) by Donald M. Nicol
Liturgy of Justinian’s Great Church by R. J. Mainstone
Lives of the Popes: Illustrated Biographies of Every Pope from St. Peter to the Present by Michael J. Walsh, consultant editor
Medicine in the Crusades: Warfare, Wounds and the Medieval Surgeon by Piers D. Mitchell
Medieval and Renaissance Venice by Kittell and Madden
Naples: An Early Guide by Enrico Bacco
The Oxford History of Byzantium by Cyril Mango
Pilgrimage: The Great Adventure of the Middle Ages by John Ure
Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages by Walter Ullma
The Sicilian Vespers: A History of the Mediterranean World in the Later Thirteenth Century (Canto) by Steven Runciman
Venice (Wonders of Man Series) by John Hagy Davis
Women, Men and Eunuchs: Gender in Byzantium by Liz James
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ANNE PERRY is the bestselling author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England: the William Monk novels, including Execution Dock and Dark Assassin, and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, including Buckingham Palace Gardens and Long Spoon Lane. She is also the author of the World War I novels No Graves As Yet, Shoulder the Sky, Angels in the Gloom, At Some Disputed Barricade, and We Shall Not Sleep, as well as seven holiday novels, most recently A Christmas Promise. A