The Wolf and the Snake (English version)

Chapter 27

This moment could be sacred, but it's already cursed when Reyn and I consume each other with our eyes. And a strange, heavy embarrassment is immediately between us.

"I missed you terribly, even if it was only for a few days."

At the sound of my voice, he could have closed his arms around me and kissed me.

But none of that!

Would a dark and painful poison have crept into him so quickly?

"The situation in Marseille calmed down," he sighs in answer. "But, alas, the burghers suspect the count of taxing them to finance a war against Italy, against Manfred, the illegitimate son of the emperor Frederic. He took the crown of Sicily, and the pope counts on Charles to steal it back."

I'm not surprised by such shenanigans. Ottone Visconti's words about the Capetian's appetite for the Italian territories come back to me. My throat becomes more painful as I mumble, "The count won't be satisfied with Provence. He wants a kingdom. He wants Sicily."

"No doubt," Reyn agrees. "The count charged a certain Gilles of Trazegnies with leading a troop to Italy through the Tende pass. It was only a reconnaissance mission, and I planned to accompany them. But then I received this letter from the countess!"

His amber eyes pierce me as if he was looking for the quagmire in which his sweet Ada had sunk.

I protest in a weak voice, "You would leave without warning me."

"Of course, I would have warned you!" he exclaims. "It would have been only two or three weeks without any fight. And here I'm learning these filthy gossips about you!"

Is it because of an immense weariness or because of growing anger?

But I'm suddenly hesitant and clumsy. "I should have told you long ago what happened on the boat. And when the king's brother offered you a position as seneschal, I thought it best to keep quiet! I was wrong!"

His beautiful wolf eyes are filled with incomprehension and rage.

"What? On the boat bringing you back from Egypt! What have you been hiding from me, Ada? I figured the countess was jealous of you, without any serious reason. I didn't believe her lies for a moment, although I always hated that you were so familiar with the count," he growls like a wild beast.

The poison is there! It has crept into him and me.

"You have left me in this horrible city of Aix, alone and defenseless," I say with a trembling voice.

My throat is so painful!

"The communal palace of Marseille is a barracks, Ada! You don't belong there, and I haven't had time to find us a comfortable place to live! But my friend Barral of Baux is taking care of it. So it's a matter of a few days, a fortnight at the most."

I let out a desperate groan. "Your friend? The scoundrel who laughed at me? No doubt he must enjoy the horrible parties in your kind of barracks and the prostitutes with their bouncing breasts."

I have hardly said these last words when he has a sneer of irony mixed with surprise. "My soldiers need to distract themselves! Imagine that! It's the same in every barracks. I beg you not to divert the conversation, so I want to know what happened on that damn boat."

I gather some meager strength and raise my head with a burst of bravado. "Nothing happened! Nothing at all!"

"Very well!" he replies. "I will find us a place to live in Marseille without any prostitutes! If that can reassure you!"

He gives me a long, last angry look before turning away. How can he leave me in such disarray? I think sadly of the sacrifices made to stay by his side, to preserve his life at any cost.

Does Reyn believe that I have drunk from the disgusting fountains of the Capetian?

But perhaps he's hiding something from me.

Wasn't he accumulating conquests before our marriage? Maybe he let himself go to debauchery under the evil influence of this lord of Baux?

My eyes are filled with tears, and I walk with an insecure step like a ship caught in the swell and shaken in all directions before sinking into the waters. I can no longer distinguish up and down, heaven or hell. But a kind face appears in the middle of this mess in which everything that mattered to me has suddenly vanished.

"Lady of Chasseney, are you ill?"

I recognized the voice of the other troubadour, the one that the damsels nicknamed "nice Paulet." I try to emit a sound, but nothing comes out. Then, short of breath and with my throat on fire, I have a horrible feeling of suffocation. I collapse heavily to the floor, imagining Reyn's long fingers on my face and body.

Maybe our lips would meet lovingly.

It was what I was hoping for, not a cruel joust.

My beloved, why do you fear my heart is fickle, changeable?

Don't you know my heart can love until and that it's enough to make it beat very hard? 

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