“Monsieur,” he said with some eagerness, “where has the woman gone?”
“Over the hill,” answered Luc shortly.
The Italian rubbed his hands together softly.
“Well, well,” he said under his breath.
“What has the creature done?” asked the Marquis of the priest. “And where have they brought her from?”
The priest named a village some leagues off, and the Italian remarked that they had seen the procession earlier in the day, and that the probable object of bringing her this distance was to terrorize the countryside.
“What is her crime?” demanded the Marquis haughtily. He disliked priests and foreigners in general and felt no reason to make an exception for these two.
The priest fixed on him eyes that were metallic and twinkling in their hardness; he made the sign of the cross and said, in a cultured, toneless voice—
“The cursèd woman was a heretic.”
The Italian seemed amused.