friend smiled ruefully. ‘I dare say my husband will be imagining that I have left him. It is foolish of him to think it, for he is kind and generous, and my little flirtations mean nothing. I have never been unfaithful, though I believe he fears it.’
‘Please tell him that I am very grateful for what you did for me.’
After Elizabeta had finally been persuaded to leave, Kathryn rang for her maid and asked for water to be brought so that she could bathe. She had sweated a great deal while she was ill and she felt in need of a bath. The hip-bath was brought to her chamber and filled with warm, scented water. Kathryn’s maid helped her to disrobe and to step into the water.
‘Do you wish me to wash your back, my lady?’
‘Not just for the moment,’ Kathryn said. ‘I am feeling very tired and I would like to relax in the water for a while—but stay within call, for I shall need you in a little while.’
‘I shall be in the next chamber, my lady,’ the girl replied. ‘I am going though your gowns to see if any of them are in need of the services of the seamstress.’
‘Thank you, Lisa,’ Kathryn said. ‘I shall feel better if I know that you are near by.’
She did not think that Maria would do anything to harm her, and she had only Elizabeta’s suspicions to make her believe that her illness had been caused by the other girl’s spite. Yet for the moment she would be very careful.
She lay back in the warm water, closing her eyes and feeling sleepy. Whatever had made her ill was most unpleasant, for her whole body had begun to ache and she felt drained. She would not want to go through an experience like that again.
Kathryn wondered where Lorenzo was and if he was thinking of her. She wished that he was with her—she would have liked to tell him what was on her mind, and she would feel much safer if he were with her. She was on the verge of sleep when she heard the slight sound behind her.
‘Is that you, Lisa?’ she asked and then something struck her on the back of her head. Just before she lost consciousness she smelled the heavy perfume that Maria had been wearing the day she first came to the house.
Lorenzo ran into the house, feeling that odd sense of anxiety that had hung over him throughout the night. It was his unease that had prompted him to cut short his business and return a day sooner than he had anticipated. It was foolish, of course, but he had the feeling that Kathryn was in danger.
As he entered the villa, he heard a cry from the direction of Kathryn’s room and ran towards it, his heart racing. Entering, he saw that the maid Lisa was struggling with someone—Maria! As he hesitated, he saw that Maria had a heavy iron candlestick in her hand, which Lisa was trying to take from her. He rushed in, capturing Maria from behind, holding her as she struggled uselessly against him.
Glancing towards the hip-bath, he saw that Lisa had rushed to drag her mistress upright and was now set on pulling her from the bath. Kathryn had a slight wound to the back of her head, but even as he pushed Maria away from him with a cry of anguish, he heard a faint moaning sound from Kathryn and went to help Lisa lower her to the ground.
‘Who did this to her?’ he demanded.
‘It was her!’ Maria screamed. ‘The maid. I came in and found her. I was trying to help Kathryn.’
‘No…’ Kathryn’s lips moved with difficulty. ‘Maria…’
‘Call for more servants,’ Lorenzo said. ‘She is not to leave this house! I shall deal with her later.’
Maria backed away from him, then turned and ran from the room. Lorenzo let her go. If she succeeded in leaving the house, she would be found. For the moment all that mattered to him was his wife.
He lifted her gently in his arms, carrying her towards the bed and laying her down. Bending over her, he smoothed the hair from her face.
‘The physician shall be called,’ he said. ‘I should never have left you alone with her. I knew she was not to be trusted.’
Several servants had responded to Lisa’s call. Lorenzo asked for towels and dried Kathryn’s body himself, turning her carefully to look at the wound to her head, which was slight.
‘There is only a small cut,’ he said. ‘She could not have hit you hard.’
‘I moved and the blow was deflected,’ Kathryn said and caught back a sob. ‘But it hurts, Lorenzo.’
‘Yes, my love,’ he said. ‘I am sure that it is painful. She shall be punished for what she has done.’ He glanced around the room. ‘Where is Veronique? Is she not here?’
‘She had a letter to tell her that her sister was very ill just after you left, Lorenzo. She asked if she might go to her and of course I told her that she had my permission…’
‘And that wretched girl took advantage of her absence and mine.’ Lorenzo looked furious. ‘She will be very sorry when I have finished with her, Kathryn.’
‘Send her away,’ Kathryn said. ‘I do not want her punished—but she cannot stay here any longer. I think that she tried to poison me yesterday, but she did not know enough about the substance she used and it served only to make me sick.’
‘She tried to poison you?’ His face darkened. ‘The evil bitch! I should kill her—but it will serve well enough if we send her back to her father.’
‘Yes.’ Kathryn smiled at him. ‘I think she fears he will discover the truth—that she has been Rachid’s woman. I think she must have loved him, for she has spoken of having a lover who would marry her.’
‘You suspected that too?’ Lorenzo nodded. ‘It must be the reason she tried to kill you. I think she was angry because he exchanged her for his son—and she wanted to punish us. It is strange, but some women do fall in love with their masters, despite their captivity. She resented being sent away from him and took her spite out on you.’
Kathryn nodded, too exhausted to say more for the moment. She thought that Maria’s plan might go deeper—that she might have been following someone else’s orders. It might be that Rachid had promised to marry her if she could find some way of destroying his enemy. She would tell Lorenzo about it later, but for the moment all she wanted to do was sleep.
‘Yes, sleep, my dearest,’ Lorenzo said in a voice that she had never heard from him. ‘I shall stay by your side. I shall not leave you until that evil woman has been taken…’
Chapter Nine
A week had passed and there was no sign of Maria, though Lorenzo had men out searching. Kathryn was now recovered both from the stomach upset and the blow to her head, which had not been serious even though it had rendered her unconscious for a moment.
‘Had Lisa not been there, she might have drowned you,’ Lorenzo said, his face dark with anger. ‘She hoped to make it look like an accident, for she wished to deceive us all.’
‘It seems that she did want me dead.’ Kathryn sighed. ‘It grieves me to think that she would act in such a way, Lorenzo. We were not her enemies. You had rescued her from Rachid…’
‘Evidently she did not wish to be rescued,’
