BooksBarbecue
Back Joan
Chapters (43)
  1. Cover
  2. Epigraph
  3. CAST OF CHARACTERS
  4. Map
  5. Part One
  6. I
  7. II
  8. III
  9. IV
  10. V
  11. VI
  12. VII
  13. Part Two
  14. I
  15. II
  16. III
  17. IV
  18. V
  19. VI
  20. VII
  21. VIII
  22. IX
  23. X
  24. Part Three
  25. I
  26. II
  27. III
  28. IV
  29. V
  30. Part Four
  31. I
  32. II
  33. III
  34. IV
  35. V
  36. VI
  37. EPILOGUE
  38. afterword
  39. Dedication
  40. acknowledgments
  41. By Katherine J. Chen
  42. about the author
  43. What’s next onyour reading list?

The scent floats up to her before she is able to look down. It is a warm fragrance, a fragrance now commonplace, though once it was exceptional. She shuts her eyes, afraid to look. When she opens them again, she sees the box is lined with golden-brown oublies, and each one bears the image of Saint Michael defeating the serpent Satan. The box comes with a note, written in the King’s own hand. She passes the note to Jean, and he reads with a bowed head, the words heavy on his lips.

Do you remember our first meeting? See how far we have come, Joan.

III

In the shrine of Saint Marcouf in Corbeny, the King sits in a large chair, elevated on a cushion. Here is another dais covered with cloth of gold and fleurs-de-lis. But at his feet, a boy no more than ten shivers from fever. Open lesions garland his neck, like red blooms. This is the disease known as scrofula, or the king’s evil, which an anointed monarch can cure by royal touch alone.

It is not how she would treat a leaking, infected wound, but she has been invited this morning only to watch.

So, from behind two rows of courtiers, she stares, with le Maçon next to her. The Archbishop and La Trémoille are in front, and there are liveried servants keeping the line of those still waiting their turn quiet and humble.

The King takes his time. He places his hands carefully on the boy’s shoulders and frowns with concentration. A moment, and he removes his hands. He nods. The boy rises, is ushered down from the dais by another servant, and the next in line pushed up as the King yawns.

She yawns, too, and le Maçon elbows her, glaring. She glares back. What? I hardly slept last night. Since dawn her mind has dwelled on…cannons, specifically a large cannon known as the bombard, which can fire a ball of stone weighing well over three hundred pounds into a wall. As a general rule, walls are built tall but not thick. So, she imagines rows and rows of these bombards replacing the wooden catapult and trebuchet outside the walls of Paris. Though the cathedral is silent, she hears an explosion; it is as sweet to her as the music of angels.