Queen in Waiting [antikvár]

CHAPTER ONEJust before the June Moon rose to full glory over the city of Bordeaux in the year 1137 a young man who had been moving swiftly and secretively through the deserted streets came to the end of his journey at the foot of a tall, round tower. There he stood for a moment in the shadow and then, emerging cautiously, moved away a little, took in his right hand one of three small round stones which he carried in his left palm, and aimed it at the narrow, unglazed arrow-slit near the tower's top. His aim was accurate and the stone disappeared into the opening. He stepped back into the shadow and waited while a man might have counted, with deliberation, to fiftv. He was fingering a second stone when a door close beside him opened silently and a voice whispered:'Richárd?'In his excitement he momentarily forgot to be cautious and said, 'Eleanor . . in a loud, normál voice. The girl who had been waiting for him said:'Sh! Danger everywhere!' She drew him into the complete black darkness of the tower and guided his hand to the wall. 'Keep to this side,' she whispered. 'There are eighty-four steps; be careful.' She closed the door which swung silently on its well-oiled hinges, but she did not replace its heavy iron bar.The eighty-four steps were worn hollow and smooth and dangerous, for they were part of the originál castle and in the far distant times of the Román occupation of Aquitaine had förmed the main approach to the look-out turret at the top of the tower; for the last two hundred and fifty years they had been used only by those on secret errands, by lovers and assas-sins, by grave men on worthy but unadvertised business, by hurried men, carrying secret messages from Popes and Kings and Sultans to successive Dukes of Aquitaine. The staircase