BURY ME DEEP an utterly gripping crime thriller with an epic twist (Detective Rozlyn Priest Book 1) by JANE ADAMS (best romantic books to read TXT) 📕

Treven was thinking fast. “When she left you, she was not headed towards home?”

Hugh looked confused, then shook his head. “I did not think of it,” he said, “but it seemed to me that she went the other way along the path. Towards the cottage of the one that found her.” He shrugged. “Perhaps she intended to visit.”

“So late at night?”

“How should I know what hours she kept? She had some errand, perhaps.”

“Strange that you did not ask nor she tell you, since she told you so much else. Or that you failed to see her safe home or to whatever destination she chose? You claimed to have feelings for this woman, Hugh. I am beginning to doubt that. Already, you told me that you spent the night with another.”

“And she confirmed that.”

“We spoke with her, yes. She said you arrived some time in the middle of the night. She could not guess the hour. You spent the remainder of the night rutting with another man’s wife while your cast-off love lay dying in the mud.”

Hugh flinched. “I told you, I thought her dead.”

“Even so, you spent little time grieving.”

“I thought . . . I thought to be elsewhere should any ask. Cate had promised Eldred that she would see no more of me. I would not have her foresworn, not even in death.”

“Unless it would be to convict her father.” Treven let out a slow, despairing breath. Battle, he understood. In that art he was master. Not this. His hopes for peace and a new life seemed suddenly to be an empty wish.

“Why did she run from you?”

“I did not say that she ran from me.”

“You frightened her, Hugh. I saw the marks on her neck and if the father killed her with a blow to the head, why place his hands at her throat? The bruises were caused by your fingers and not his. Did you think to kill her then?”

Hugh’s colour had been lifted by the fresh air but he paled again now.

“I remember another time.” Treven asserted. “I came back to our lodging and found you with a woman. You played rough with her, hands about her throat until she bruised because in some way she had displeased you. You made excuse that she’d been stealing and that you acted in anger. I believed you and took your word that you meant only to put the fear of God back into her soul, but I know what happened that night with Cate, Hugh de Vries. She told you that she planned to return faithfully to her husband or, perhaps, she threatened you by saying that the child she carried was yours and wanted provision for him? Whatever the cause, you sought to frighten her, maybe even to take her life.”

“I sought . . . I sought nothing. Yes, I was angry. Yes, I behaved as no man should. Anyway, that other one was nothing but a common whore . . .”

“She was still a living woman . . .”

“Maybe so, but when I realised what I had done to Cate . . . believe me Treven, I went too far without meaning anything. I released her and she ran. I did not follow. I would have confessed to my assault of her . . .”

“But then her father struck the fatal blow and you assumed all would think her killer sought to choke her first.”

He turned from Hugh and spoke angrily to Kendryk. “Your laws tried him, I’ll leave it to you to give him passage home. I’ll have no more of this.”

“You cannot send me away,” Hugh reminded him. “The King appointed me. I go or stay upon his word, not yours.”

“And I will send word to the King and plead my case with him. You think he’ll want a lawgiver that the people despise?”

“A lawgiver that dared to give himself up to justice and was victorious,” Hugh retorted.

Treven gave him one last look before striding away. “I thought once that I knew your heart,” he said. “You were impulsive, sometimes foolish and your liking for women was ever wont to lead to trouble, but at least I knew you to be loyal and honest. I look now at your heart and see it rotten, eaten by maggots. Keep from my doors, Hugh. You are not welcome in my hall.”

CHAPTER 33

Osric followed as Treven rode back to Theadingford, though keeping a respectful distance from his master. Treven was in no mood for either conversation or observation on what had passed.

As they dismounted, Osric reached to take the reins from Treven’s hand and said, “I’ve done a wrong thing.”

“I know it. Osric, did you think none would notice the scent of herbs or the feel of the oil you’d brewed them in? Kendryk is too sharp for that to go by.”

“You’ll punish me?”

“I should have you flogged but, truthfully, I’ve no stomach for it. If Kendryk had wished to challenge he would have done so back there. No, he’ll save that knowledge for some other time when it might be of use to him . . . as will Hugh?”

Osric looked puzzled. “He can’t tell on us without impugning himself,” he objected.

“Hugh is subtler then either you or I. If there is a way then he will find it. This is not the man I knew in battle, this is someone I do not understand. A man who looks, as I suppose do we all, to get the most from the king’s peace, but Osric, should I ever dishonour myself as deep as Hugh has done, cut my throat while I sleep and bury my body face down in the earth.”

Osric looked away, choosing not to hear. Instead, he led the horses to be groomed and stabled.

“Osric,” Treven called after him, “I will walk for a while. I’ve no mood