Page 17 of Raven's Rise
Rafe stood up.
“I am Katherine,” the lady said. “Your man Simon found me and told me what occurred.”
“Will she recover?” Rafe asked.
“She has before.” The lady directed the maids to put down their things, and began to give them a series of detailed instructions. Then the older woman said to Rafe, “I will stay with her through the night. You may retire, sir knight.”
“I’ll stay outside in the hall,” he told her. “In case there’s need.”
Katherine blinked, and then seemed to focus on him for the first time. “You’re the knight my husband will charge with escorting Angelet to the nunnery, are you not?”
“I’m one of the soldiers.”
“You take your duty seriously.”
He could have given simple yes, but something in him made him retreat. He did not want the lady to see just how profoundly Angelet had affected him. “Expediency, my lady. I can’t get paid for a job if the client dies first.” Rafe smiled as he spoke, the same smile he always used to charm.
Lady Katherine gave him a long, searching look. Then she said, “You may wait outside the room. Though with Angelet, all we can truly do is wait for her to come back to herself.”
Rafe nodded and took up a position just outside the door. The maids exited a little while after. But Lady Katherine remained inside. The slight sounds of movement, the rustle of fabric and the clink of the dishes suggested she was doing something. Then things quieted down.
An hour passed. Another. Rafe must have dozed, because he jerked awake on hearing some small sound.
“What is it?” he asked out loud, reaching for the dagger at his side. His brain was muddled, and his instinct was to expect a battle.
No one was there, but he heard the sound again, a soft moaning. It came from Angelet’s room.
He took a breath, then eased the door open. The candle had burned low, but still illuminated the room. Lady Katherine sat in the only chair, her head nodding over her chest.
Angelet, however, appeared to be waking. Or at least her sleep was no long the deep catatonia that gripped her before. A thin sound escaped her lips.
Rafe sat on the edge of her bed, there being nowhere else to sit. He leaned over, putting a hand to her head.
“Angelet?” he asked quietly. If Lady Katherine woke, she would not look on the scene with much sympathy. “Angelet.”
Her brow wrinkled up, a sign of some internal pain.
Rafe immediately bent and laid a kiss on her forehead, hoping to soothe her. He pulled back to find her eyes now open, staring at him in wonder.
“What has happened?” she asked. “I was waiting for you in the chapel, and…” she trailed off. “Oh.”
“You remember?” he asked.
“It’s coming back. You found me?”
“I did. You were near the altar, unconscious.”
“It happened again,” she said in a small, hopeless voice. “I hoped I would be free of it for some time, but luck was not with me. Well, perhaps it was, if you found me.”
“Simon and I both found you, and brought you back here when your own servants showed no inclination to do so.”
Then she blinked, seeming to realize something for the first time. “You stayed with me.”
“Just outside. Lady Katherine remained here. See?”
She looked over, but immediately returned to him.
“But you hardly know me, and you stayed.”
