Читать книгу The Breath of the Rose - Андреа Жапп - Страница 7

Winter 1294, Comté du Perche. The recently widowed Agnès de Souarcy takes under her wing Clément, the newborn infant of her lady’s maid, Sybille, who has died in childbirth.

Cyprus, 1304. The Knight Hospitaller Francesco de Leone is sent to France. His official mission is to gather information that will help the Hospitaller order anticipate the political machinations of France’s monarch, Philip the Fair. However, Leone is guided by a secret quest.

Paris, 1304. Philip the Fair aims to free himself of the Church’s authority. Pope Benoît XI is fatally poisoned, and the Pope’s personal guard – the twin orders of the Knights Templar and Hospitaller – comes under threat. Philip the Fair, with the help of his most influential counsellor, Guillaume de Nogaret, advances his pawns. He needs to find a docile pope.

Souarcy-en-Perche Estate, 1304. Clément has grown into a young boy with a lively intelligence. He gains entry to a secret library at Clairets Abbey. There he devours all the ancient texts forbidden by or unknown to the Church, and stumbles on a journal belonging to the Knight Hospitaller Eustache de Rioux, which refers to a mysterious Vallombroso treatise, two birth charts and a series of incomprehensible runic symbols … Is there a link between these discoveries and the Knight Hospitaller Francesco de Leone’s extraordinary quest?

The body of a man lies in Souarcy Forest. It appears to have been burnt and yet there is no trace of any fire in the vicinity. An emissary of the Pope delivers a message to the Abbess of Clairets, Éleusie de Beaufort. The message contains a reference to the divine blood that washes away all sins. More corpses are discovered, as well as a series of clues pointing to Manoir de Souarcy and Agnès.

On her estate, Agnès, Dame de Souarcy, must also cope with the incestuous desires of her half-brother Eudes de Larnay, who dreams of forcing her to submit to him and is quick to throw her into the clutches of the Inquisition and the bloodthirsty Nicolas Florin. The only person who might save Agnès is Artus, the Comte d’Authon, who has fallen in love with her …