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Prologue

Tricourten Keep

England, 1132

"Coed "We've only till the end of Seton's watch at the gate " Her voice, usually steady unless she was confronted by her husband Fantin, wavered as she glanced out the arrow-slitin her solar

Madelyne, though only ten, recognized the fear and desperation in her mother's eyes, and sed back her own terror If her father found theht into herthe heavy cloak about her shoulders, Madelyne caught up its overlong hem and pulled the hood to cover her hair

Anne opened the door of her solar, and, grasping her daughter's smaller hand in her cool one, led the way into the dark corridor The edges of their rough woolen cloaks brushed silently along the cold stone floor, and the coarse material prickled Madelyne's neck and wrists A an at the stairs descending to the Great Hall, where the sounds of drunken revelry reverberated a the rafters

A great lump formed in the back of Madelyne's throat when they paused at the top of the stair One more step and they would be in view of anyone who cared to notice two darkly-cloaked figures inching their way down the stone stairs and across the rear of the hall Herand then she stepped forward and down

Their descent ift as they huddled along the stone wall, trying to blend with the shadows Once upon the floor of the hall, Anne released Madelyne's hand and darted through a shaft of light thrown by a torch, stopping in a shadowy corner She turned back to her daughter and gestured: Come, quickly

Sing heavily, Madelyne looked out over the hall, wherefire at the other end lit the roo down the faces of the revelers

Her father, Fantin de Belgruoblet aloft His pale blond hair gleah sliced through the other noises to settle over Madelyne She shrank back into the shadohen he looked toward the rear of the hall, fear rising in her throat For a h she could hear her heart pounding over the cacophony in the hall

Relief washed over her when he shifted his gaze without pausing, and Madelyne suddenly became aware that herto freedoestured for her to follow Madelyne took a deep breath and hurried through the patch of light, gratefullyinto the dimness beyond the torch

One of the hounds her father favored raised its head as she passed by, lifting the corner of its lip to show a sharp fang Madelyne skirted around hiht to throw to the derowl that ruan to bark

She forced herself to keep walking, and at last she reached a small alcove just adjacent to the door of the keep Anne waited in this shadow, and, after a quick, hard ee oaken door It was slightly ajar to allow men-at-arms, hounds, smoke, and air to pass within and without the keep, and once through this entrance, they would be closer to freedom than Maddie had ever dreamed

Thus 'tith overwhelh the opening and found herself huddled against the outside of the castle wall, blinking up at the quarter moon and starry sky

"Praise Mary," Annethe shter's hand yet again