Free In Defense of the Queen by Michelle Diener Page B

never wanted to kill someone so badly. Every muscle, every tendon, screamed for action, screamed for him to flick his arm, palm his knife and throw it.
    Straight into Horenbout’s throat.
    “Don’t look at me like that.” Lucas’s eyes were wide, and Parker smelt the stink of fear in his sweat.
    “My life was calm, happy, before you came along, Horenbout. Now my betrothed is in the Tower and my life has gone to hell.” He couldn’t help it, he did palm his knife into his hand.
    “She is my sister. You think I wanted this?”
    Parker flicked the knife upward, so it arced through the air. He caught it by the hilt. “You knew it was a possibility. But you endangered her anyway. Without asking her permission, without any precautions. The speed with which your plan has been uncovered tells me this was either done by amateurs, or someone wanted you and Susanna in trouble.”
    “I didn’t engineer this. I’m just the messenger,” Lucas shouted, then gripped his head, rocking on his heels. “ Mijn God .” He looked about to faint.
    Parker felt no sympathy. “Why did you run yesterday? Who hit you over the head?”
    Lucas groaned, and stumbled to the bed, flopped down on it and lay, eyes closed. “I was upstairs in my room. I saw someone come over the wall. He looked like a ruffian, a thug.” Lucas massaged his temples. “I grabbed a few things, and ran out the front door.”
    “Straight to your meeting with Heyman.”
    Horenbout’s eyes flew open at that. “He told you of our meeting?”
    “He thought it would prove he didn’t knock you senseless.”
    “Jan didn’t hit me over the head.”
    “Who did then?” Parker stepped right up to the bed, to read his brother-in-law’s eyes.
    “I never saw them, they came from behind—”
    “Then it could have been Heyman. He was certainly the only one we found on the scene. And he knew where you would be, and when.”
    “I don’t believe it,” Lucas whispered. “We . . .” He fell silent, cast a quick glance at Parker from the corner of his eye, and then winced at the pain it cost him. “I won’t believe it.”
    Parker took a step back from the bed. Lucas and Heyman both went quiet with fear when he probed about their association. Heyman had risked serious harm when he’d refused to answer.
    Someone very powerful lay behind this.
    Someone they thought could reach right into Henry’s court, if they so wished.
    “The Emperor Charles.” He didn’t know he had spoken aloud until Horenbout groaned, and turned away, his head in his hands.
    “Leave me alone.” He buried his face into his pillow.
    “Oh, I will. My lady is locked in the Tower, and I need to find a way to free her without jeopardizing our entire future at court.”
    Horenbout lifted himself up. “And if you can’t?” He looked like a madman, ready for a place in Saint Mary of Bethlehem, his hair standing straight up and his eyes wide and desperate.
    “If I can’t, I’ll have to find a way to free her and escape England.”
    “You think me to blame for this, but I’ve sacrificed as well. Tried to protect us all—”
    “If there is anything you know that can help me, tell me now.” Parker cut him off, sick of the sight of him. He moved towards the door.
    Horenbout looked ready to speak, then sank back onto his pillow. Turned his face away.
    Parker hesitated at the threshold. “If you know something useful and are holding it back and Susanna is hurt, no place you hide will be safe from me.”
    He took the stairs at a run, and behind him, he heard Lucas begin to sob.
    * * *
    The last time Parker had been this nervous before meeting the King, he’d been young, without connections, with nothing but a dangerous letter and his wits as currency.
    Things were all too different now. He had so much more to lose, but he walked past the courtiers and other Privy Chamber gentlemen, towards the guards of the King’s Closet, without hesitation or falter.
    One of the guards stepped into the