"What has this to do with you and me?" he demanded.
"You are close to the Tartars. You might be able to help her."
Simon glowered. "If I had been there that day in Orvieto, you may be sure they would not have raided that brothel."
He might be on the enemy side, she thought, but he was not a savage like the Franks of her childhood. He was a genuinely good man, and that was what made the hopeless dream of marrying him so painful.
She put her hand on his arm and squeezed. "Will you try to get the Tartar to release the girl? Cardinal Ugolini will take her in."
When she laid her hand on the hard, wiry muscle in his arm, she did not want to let go.
I still want him! My God, what is the matter with me?
"De Verceuil would oppose me if I tried to take the girl away from John. Incredible, is it not? A cardinal involved in kidnapping a young girl for the pleasure of a barbarian?"
Sophia, taught by her Greek Orthodox priests that the Roman Church was a fountainhead of wickedness, did not think the cardinal's actions all that incredible. Besides, was she not in league with another cardinal who was helping the Muslims?
"There must be a way to help Rachel," she said.