Daughters of the Dagger 03 - Amber (4 page)

Amber’s eyebrow dropped and her slight smile turned into a frown and
he knew she once again did not approve of him relaying his thoughts aloud.

“Sisters
, you can leave now,” instructed Father Armand. “And Sister Amber, now that Lucifer is awake and healing, you no longer need to stay at his side, but can resume your normal routine. I expect you to meet me in the church for confession first thing in the morning. I will decide then what your penance will be for the way you addressed me in the church last night.”

“Of course,” sh
e told him, keeping her eyes focused downward as she headed toward the door right behind Sister Dulcina.

Lucas
could tell Armand was trying to get rid of them, and he knew the conversation between them was going to be far from pleasant.

“Well, hello Father,” said Lucas sarcastically. “I didn’t expect such a smashing reception or I would have worn a helm.
” He rubbed his head as he spoke. “After all, I almost died trying to save those damned worthless relics and the money they brought us.”

The priest’s eyes burned
with fire and his head snapped around toward the door. The abbess had already quit the room but Amber stopped and turned her head slightly upon hearing his words. Father Armand turned back to Lucas and shook his head as he spoke to Amber without turning around.

“Is there something you need, Sister Amber?” the priest ground out. “If not, be on your way and close the door behind you.”

Amber didn’t even acknowledge him, and Lucas was secretly glad. The priest didn’t turn around or continue talking until he heard the click of the door as it closed. Then he quickly glanced over his shoulder checking that she’d left, and turned back with his dark eyes focused on Lucas.

“What are you doing, talking like that with the women in the room?”

“Well?” asked Lucas. “You seemed to have no problem trying to kill me in front of them at the church so what does it matter?”

“I was only trying to shut you up,” said the man. “You can’t be barging into the church spouting blasphemy. I’ll have to
punish you for that or the abbess will question my actions.”

“It seems to me you’re finding
reasons to make me suffer every time I return to the monastery.”

“You were s
upposed to be a monk, not a mercenary wandering the land.”

“You are just angry that I didn’t end up as a
man of the cloth who abides by the rules and doesn’t sin at all, just like you, Father, right?”

“I did all I could to raise you right and in the eyes of God since the day I found you on the church steps.”

“Speaking of that,” said Lucas, sitting up straighter. “I met a very interesting woman on pilgrimage who told me she’d witnessed a noblewoman dropping off a baby at the church steps three and twenty years ago.”

“That happens all the time, so why should this news seem to surprise you?” The priest paced back and forth, his usual nervous self.

“Mayhap because this noblewoman gave the baby to you along with a bag of coins.”

“Sometimes coin is left along with the babies to ensure I can tend to their upbringing until I find a family to take them in.”

“But they are not all named Lucifer and have the piercing light blue eyes of a bird now, do they?”

The priest stopped his pacing
, and grabbed hold of the back of the chair, stepping around it, and sliding down into it slowly. “I have no idea what you heard, but I assure you it is naught but idle gossip. I advise you to ignore it.”

“This is one time I am glad for wagging tongues. Because now I realize that you have known the identity of my birthmother all these years but yet you’ve kept it from me.”

“That is utter nonsense.”

Lucas swung his feet over the side of the bed
and sat up. He felt his fury rising. “So are you going to sit there and lie through your teeth like you’ve done for the last three and twenty years every time I asked you about my parents?”

“Keep you voice down,
” he said, nervously glancing toward the door.

“I will not, until you give me an answer.”

“All right, calm down. So I’d seen your mother before in the village, but I tell you I never knew her name.”

“Was she a noblewoman like the pilgrim told me?”

“I … suppose. She paid dearly for me to take you off her hands.”

“Why didn’t you find a family to take me in? I find it odd you kept me at the monastery and raised me yourself.”

His eyes opened wide and then they turned to squints. His mouth was pursed as he seemed to be thinking of what to say.

“S
he made me promise to keep you here until she could one day return for you again.”

“And did she?” Somehow he had a feeling the woman had come back and there was more to this than the priest was telling him.

“She did,” he admitted. “Not more than a year later. But she told me she couldn’t keep you since her reputation would be tarnished. It seems she had you out of wedlock.”

“So she
was
a noblewoman, or she wouldn’t have cared about her reputation.”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

Lucas’s side started aching, and at these words he slunk back down onto the pillows.

“What did she look like?” he asked, staring across the roo
m at nothing in particular.

“Was she pretty?”

“I suppose so, but I don’t notice those things, Lucifer, as I am not concerned with them.”

Lucas knew that was a lie
, as he’d seen Father Armand eyeing many a pretty woman over the years as he’d spoken to them after mass.

“You told me you named me. Is that true or was it my mother?”

“That is true,” he told him. “You were a newborn and had no name. She didn’t even know what I’d named you until she returned a year later.”

“Why did you name me Lucifer? What would possess you to do such a thing?”

The priest looked to the ground and just shook his head. It took him a moment to answer. “It doesn’t matter. Now give me the bag of coins you brought back from selling the relics.”

“It matters to me,” said Lucas, but he knew he’d find out nothing more from the ma
n at this time. His wound was hurting him as well as his head, and he was tired, and had no more strength to argue with the priest right now.

“Fine,” he said, “but this conversation is far from over.”

Lucas reached for the bag on the table, surprised the priest hadn’t just taken the coins when he was unconscious. He realized he had probably waited because he didn’t want Amber to see him doing it. His hand stopped in midair. He turned back to the priest.

“Take off the damned chains first,” he said, holding his hands out to him.
“And I want my weapons returned at once.”

“Give me the bag
,” he countered. “And you are too weak and wounded to use a sword right now, nor is it appropriate to have it within the monastery walls, so I’ll hold on to your weapons until I feel you are ready to have them returned.”

“These cha
ins are reserved for nobles on pilgrimage,” he pointed out. “You knew I was the son of a noblewoman and that’s why you put them on me in the first place, wasn’t it? But no one else knows that, so you needn’t have wasted them on me.”

“
It was necessary to make sure people respected you enough to buy the relics from you without questioning the authenticity of the pieces. Besides, you punched me before you left on pilgrimage in one of your angry fits and you had to do penance for that, or have you forgotten.”

“
I haven’t forgotten. I hit you because I was angry at the way you treat me as well as others. And they are fake relics,” he reminded him. “You disgust me to be taking advantage of poor innocent people who are trying to buy their way to Heaven.”

“Now, now, Lucifer. If they were innocent they would most likely never be on a pilgrimage to begin with or be trying to collect all the relics they could to ensure the saving of their souls. And
the money goes to the double monastery, as Bowerwood is large and takes much coin to run it. So those sinners were only helping out the church, and for that they will be smiled upon by God. Besides, I let you keep your weapons to protect those people, so they were in no real danger.”

“You are no priest
, but the devil in disguise,” ground out Lucas. “You will burn in Hell for your greed and deceit.”

Father Armand reached out and grabbed the chain around Lucas’
s neck and pulled, the metal chaffing into his skin. Though his hands were not bound together, they were encircled with metal rings and chains hung from them as well. It was a form of punishment and embarrassment that he could have done without.

“Well then,” said the priest
, his face getting very close when he spoke, “I guess I’ll have company in Hell as you’ll be right there alongside me as my accomplice.”

Lucas
tightened the muscles in his neck, surprised at how strong the man was when angered. He didn’t want to fight a priest, but neither did he want to be subservient to the man any more either.

“I almost died trying to carry out your scheme. And if I’d had anywhere else to go at the time, I
would have left you and your deceptive ways in a minute.”

“You’re in too deep, Lucifer, and you know it. You owe your life as well as your soul to me for raising you and keeping you from a life of poverty.”

“You promised me my own castle after this pilgrimage, and I want it!”

“Nay, you never finished the pilgrima
ge, so you get nothing until you deliver.” The priest dropped the chain and it hit Lucas in the chest.

The man’s lies once again had him trappe
d as well as angered. He’d been living on borrowed promises, doing his penance for leaving the church, thinking he was saving his blackened soul as well as ensuring a wealthy lifestyle for himself. That’s the only reason he agreed to sell the fake relics for the priest to begin with.

It seemed an easy way to ma
ke money quickly and the reward he was to be given when he finished was more than he could ever attain from being a mercenary.

Being a hired sword
was a cold, cruel job and wandering the lands was unfulfilling. He knew damned well he’d never have a pot to piss in if he kept up that lifestyle. No mercenary who wasn’t a noble would ever have his own castle. The church had more wealth than most the nobles, and by God he wanted some of it, as he’d seen Father Armand’s lifestyle and it was impressive indeed. If a church were to give him a castle, he’d be accepted, be he a noble or not.

Lucas
had nothing in life. No wealth, no lands, and no one to love or care for him. He’d been promised a castle after he did the priest’s bidding, and now he was being denied it. Father Armand controlled the strings of the coin pouch for the double monastery though that position should have been controlled by the abbess alone. And as the priest was his surrogate father, Lucas felt he deserved to share the wealth as well.

“You bastard,” he spat, raising
a hand to hit him, but Father Armand stood up and moved away quickly. The priest stumbled backward and steadied himself by grabbing on to the table.

“What’s the matter?” Lucas
growled. “Been nipping too much wine from the chalice again?”

“You’
d better watch your words, as I’ll not allow you to hit a holy man and get away with it again. I’ll have you excommunicated.”

“I w
as well in my cups when I punched you the first time, but I am more than sober now. And if you need to excommunicate me from the church, then do so. There is nothing here for me anymore, so it doesn’t matter.”

“I sent you away before, and I’ll do it again,” said the priest raising up and smoothing down his robe.
“As soon as you’re able to leave the bed, you’ll finish your pilgrimage as was our deal. I need you to go to Canterbury where one of our biggest shrines to the saint, Thomas Becket is just crying out for someone to sell relics. Besides, Canterbury Cathedral has a relic I want and you are going to retrieve it for me. Actually, it’s not a relic, but one of the treasures of Canterbury.”

“
Retrieve?” he repeated the word. “What you really mean is that you want me to steal from a church, don’t you? You’ve gone mad.”

“I want
the parish of St. Ermengild to have the best relics in the land. Real ones, that is. And also the best treasures. The archbishop of Winchester will be visiting soon and I need to make a good impression in his eyes. If he likes what he sees, I am hoping he will put in a good word to the Pope about me. With any luck, I’ll be a bishop soon and have my own diocese instead of just a parish. Besides, this won’t be the first time a relic or treasure is stolen from a rivaling church. This has been going on amongst the churches for years. It is not anything new, I assure you.”

“
Perhaps not, but you are asking me to do it. I almost died from a band of ruffians with very large blades on your little mission already. It was only by my own training with a sword that I was able to protect the other pilgrims and kill the bandits. And I assure you it didn’t help that I had these to slow me down.” Lucas held up the chains to show him. “Had they not used the chains to hold me down I never would have been wounded. ’Twas only because I had my feet free that I was able to get out of their hold.”