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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 Duke wrenches off his glove to appraise the damage, his thumb jutting at an unnatural angle. He stares, his face caught between anger and pain. This time, he does not hesitate. With his good hand, he strikes her across the mouth. It is a blow hard enough to send another man reeling, but her jaw only stiffens. She spits a wad of blood across his polished boots, and then shakes her head, like a horse that has been sprinkled with a little water. Is that the best you can do, Your Grace? She thinks, That was for the boy Guillaume.

The Duke looks at the piles of corpses around them. These are his own men, but his gaze is cold, almost sneering.

“Your skill has not been exaggerated. Now that I have seen you, I believe the stories: Orléans, Patay, the journey to Reims,” he says. His hand is held by a servant who has arrived to dab the bite wound with a cloth and water.

“Return my sword to me,” she says, “and permit me to show you what else I can do.”

Her mind is already thinking ahead—to her escape, to being close enough to the Duke of Burgundy to cut his white, pulsing throat.

“You are proud, but you will pay a dear price for your pride,” he replies. He steps away to remount his horse. “Though it may sound strange, I am almost sorry to see you captured. A shame, a great shame, that you did not serve someone better: myself or Bedford. Your gifts are wasted on my cousin the Dauphin…pardon—I mean, of course, His Majesty the King.”

Mention of the King almost surprises her. She has not thought of him during the whole battle. When she thinks of France, she no longer considers its ruler.

“A warning, my lord,” she says, as their eyes meet. “Should I escape, I may not only bite you next time.”

It is worth it just to see him flinch.

EPILOGUE

THE ROAD TO ROUEN, CAPITAL OF THE ENGLISH STRONGHOLD OF NORMANDY

DECEMBER 1430

En route to Rouen, she is kept in a cage. Crowds gather to jeer at her. They spit through the bars. They throw small stones, as the large ones will not reach, and when they cannot get close enough to the cage, they call her names from a distance: whore, witch, demoness. They believe she has rutted with the Dauphin, for they won’t acknowledge him as king, and she has no time to explain to them that she wouldn’t sleep with the King, not even for his weight in gold, which, at the end of the day, isn’t very much.