Page 91 of While Angels Slept
Myles began to escort her towards the shanty. “Did Cantia or Tevin ever tell you about Gillywiss?”
Val nodded. “Cantia told me,” she replied. “He was the outlaw who saved her from Dagan, was he not?”
Myles nodded. “Indeed,” he said. “He also formed some kind of strange attachment to Cantia. He made her a promise.”
“What do you mean? What promise?”
“That he would discover Louisa’s fate so that Tevin and Cantia could be married.”
Val’s brow furrowed. “Why on earth would he do that?”
“As I said, he formed a strange attachment to Cantia. When he appeared this morning, he said that he did it because they had something in common, wanting things they could never have. He also did it because she saved his sister’s life and he felt indebted to her.”
Val came to a halt at the door to the shack, looking at him with an utterly baffled expression. “What did he do?”
Myles lifted his eyebrows at her. “I am hoping you can tell me.”
He pushed the door open, exposing his wife to the dark and unsettling world inside. The physic and the serving woman were there, washing out some clothes in vinegar to put over the patient’s mouth so she could not cough out her germs. Wary, Val stepped in with Mylesbehind her. He took her over to the straw mattress where a small figure lay, now with a cloth over her nose and mouth, and still swathed in jumbles of dirty blankets. She smelled like a sewer. Myles glanced over his shoulder at the physic.
“Remove the cloth on her mouth,” he instructed. “I want to see her face.”
The physic slid into the space between Val and the bed, peeling off the vinegar-soaked cloth. A very pale, very fair face came into view and the physic pulled back the blankets around the woman’s head so her hair and features could be more plainly seen.
“Tell me who this is,” Myles whispered to his wife.
Perplexed, Val bent over to gain a better look. She truly had no idea who she was looking at until the woman shifted and more of her features came into view. Then, an inkling of suspicion gripped her and Val peered more closely at the woman, drawing on distant memories to put a name to the face. When the woman sighed faintly in her sleep and a big dimple appeared on her chin, Val was seized with recognition. She grabbed Myles as if something had just terrified her.
“Louisa!” she gasped. “It… it isLouisa!”
Myles held on to his stricken wife. “Are you sure?”
Val nodded, so hard that her hair flopped over her cheeks. “My God,” she breathed, blinking back tears. “Iknewher. I thought we were friends. That is her, I swear it.”
Myles pulled her away from the bed, gesturing to the physic, who went to his patient and covered her mouth and nose again with the soaked cloth. Meanwhile, Myles pulled his wife all the way to the door, kicking the panel open to get her out of the diseased hut. He had a strong grip on her because she was shaken and upset.
“Listen to me,” he whispered. “You cannot tell Cantia. Tevin must tell her.”
Val lost the battle against the tears. “It is not Cantia I am worried over,” she wept. “Arabel will be devastated. All she knows of her mother was that she abandoned her and did not love her. Dear God, why is thatwoman here? What will we tell Arabel?”
Myles put his arms around her to comfort her. “You will tell her nothing,” he said soothingly, steadily. “That is for Tevin to decide. I simply needed your confirmation that it is indeed Tevin’s wife. You have done that. You must let your brother take care of the rest.”
Val was wiping at her eyes with shaking hands. “That… that outlaw actuallyfoundher?” she was flabbergasted. “How did he find her?”
“He has family in Paris,” Myles replied. “Since Paris was the last known location of Louisa, Gillywiss apparently went there looking for her. It took him months to track her down, but he did, finding her in a brothel. He brought her back because he promised Cantia he would.”
Val was gazing at him with a wide-eyed expression, full of incredulity. “Promisedher? But I simply do not understand. For what purpose?”
“I told you,” he said patiently. “I can only surmise that it is so Cantia can know the woman’s fate and, in knowing, pave the pathway for her and Tevin to be married. At least, that was the gist of what I understood.”
It made some sense, but Val was still reeling. “I can hardly grasp all of this,” she breathed. “Louisa has actually returned.”
“Aye, she has.”
She started to reply but the words caught in her throat and her expression changed from disbelief to one of sorrow. Her gaze moved to the mighty keep of Rochester soaring over their heads.
“I must speak with Tevin,” she said, moving for the keep and pulling Myles with her. “He must know… my God, what must he be thinking of all of this? He must be astonished at the very least. The woman humiliated him, abandoned him, and now she is returned.”
Myles took her hand to both slow her down and steady her. “Your brother can well handle his feelings, Val,” he said softly. “I know you want to protect him, but he is a grown man. He can handle himself.”
