Read "The Tavern Knight" by Rafael Sabatini online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Cynthia's swoon was after all but brief. Upon recovering consciousness her first act was to dismiss her woman. She had need to be alone - the need of the animal that is wounded to creep into its lair and hide itself. And so alone with her sorrow she sat through that long day.
That her father's condition was grievous she knew to be untrue, so that concerning him there was not even that pity that she might have felt had she believed - as he would have had her believe that he was dying.