Catherine: One Love is Enough (Catherine Series Book 1) by Juliette Benzoni

beautiful for your own peace, perhaps. And you will love only one man, but you will love him passionately. For him you will starve and go thirsty, leave your bed and house. You will search for him along the highways and byways without even knowing if he will be there to welcome you in the end. You will love him more than yourself, more than anything on Earth, more than life itself …’
    ‘I won’t! I will never love any man like that!’ said Catherine, stamping her foot angrily. ‘The one man I could have loved is dead.’
    She broke off, afraid that she had given herself away by what she had just said, and looked nervously across at her mother. But Jacquette had not heard.
    She had returned to her seat by the hearth and was sat there telling her wooden rosary beads. Sara seized Catherine’s hands in hers, pinioned her legs between her knees and lowered her voice several tones till it became a soft, insistent, soothing murmur.
    ‘Thus it is written, nevertheless. Strange things are written in these small hands. I see a great, great love that will cause you much suffering and yet give you such raptures as the human heart can rarely have known. Many men will love you, and one in particular. Oh!’ She turned the girl’s hands palms upwards and examined them closely, her brow furrowed by lines. ‘I see a prince … a real prince! He will love you and help you in many ways. But it is another whom you will love. I see him! He is young, handsome, of noble birth … but hard, so hard! You will often wound yourself on the thorns around his heart, but blood and tears are the bricks and mortar of which love is built. You will seek this man as a dog seeks its master, you will follow him like a hound on the scent of a great stag. You will have fame, fortune, love and everything … But you will pay dearly for it all. And then … how strange! You will meet an angel!’
    ‘An angel?’ Catherine repeated, open-mouthed.
    Sara let the girl’s hands drop. She looked suddenly weary and old, but her eyes, which seemed to see far beyond the grimy walls, shone with light, as though a bundle of tapers blazed in them.
    ‘An angel!’ she repeated ecstatically. ‘A warrior angel carrying a flaming sword …!’
    Feeling that Sara was losing herself in regions too remote for her to follow, Catherine shook her arm gently to bring her back to earth.
    ‘And you, Sara? Will you return one day to your island at the end of the blue sea?’
    ‘I cannot read the book of the future for myself, my pretty. The spirit forbids it. But an old woman once told me that, though I might leave my country forever, I would find my own people once again. She said that the tribes would come to me.’
     
     
    When Barnaby returned he seemed in a high good humour. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘the plan is drawn up, and everything has been decided. As soon as a favourable occasion turns up we will get Loyse back from Caboche.’
    ‘Why wait? Why not tonight?’ cried Jacquette. ‘Hasn’t she waited long enough already? And haven’t I too?’
    ‘Peace, woman,’ said Barnaby, somewhat roughly. ‘We want to get her back without being killed ourselves. Tonight they will be lighting the bonfires for the feast of St Jean. The biggest bonfires are the one in front of the palace and the one on the quay. It will be impossible to do anything in the city itself, only a few yards from the bonfire and all the people who will come to see it. Besides, Caboche is captain of the Charenton bridge. He has men and weapons at his disposal there. He is more powerful than ever. Anyway, there are more preparations to be made. Once we have put our plan into action the town will become too dangerous for us. Caboche will be searching for us everywhere, even in the Cour des Miracles, where he has spies. Once we have found Loyse we shall have to leave Paris.’
    ‘We?’ said Catherine delightedly. ‘Will you be coming too?’
    ‘Yes, little one. My time here is coming to an end. I am