Part 16 (1/2)
Reaching across the tray, David took Eudo's tunic in his hand and slowly brought him forward. ”Why did you laugh?”
”I didn't laugh.”
”A lie, Eudo.” Letting him go, David took the tray. ”Because you're disappointed in me, you think your vow to tell the truth invalid?”
”Nay.” Eudo's voice rose and cracked. ”But I don't need you hitting me because of what I think.”
”How often have I done that?”
Eudo squirmed. ”Never.” He jumped off the stool and stepped back a safe distance. ”So I did laugh at you. Everyone's laughing at you.”
David placed the tray across his lap, shook out the ma.s.sive napkin and spread it on his chest. ”Because I failed today?”
Eudo tucked his hands into his armpits and hunched his shoulders.
Humiliation began to gnaw at David again, and picking up the spoon, he gripped the handle tightly. ”If you don't want to be in here with me, why don't you go?”
”They're laughing at me, too.”
David glanced toward the door. Of course. The disappointed servants of George's Cross would have to take their ire out on someone. David wasn't available, so even better was his squire, a small, b.a.s.t.a.r.d-born lad who couldn't defend himself against the jeers.
Now David really despised himself as a craven, leaving the boy to suffer his punishment, and he offered himself to Eudo. ”Do you have anything you want to say to me?”
”Nay,” Eudo muttered.
”Another lie,” David chided.
Eudo's eyes flashed. ”Well, why not? You lied to me.”
”When?”
”When you let me think you were a legend.”
Getting a grip on his composure, David said, ”I didn't create the legend, nor did I encourage it. If I let you think anything, it was that I was still the greatest fighter in Christendom.”
”Fine.”
Eudo almost spat the word, and David realized that facing the rest of the castle would have been easier. After all, adults knew how to pretend respect with their faces and their voices. Eudo displayed all the fierce honesty of an eleven-year-old, and David found himself scrambling to a.s.suage the boy's disappointment. ”Once I was the greatest fighter.”
”Should I believe that?”
David grappled with his suddenly unsteady temper. ”Keep a civil tongue in your head,” he warned.
Eudo flinched and huddled farther into himself. ”Don't tell my lady.”
”Have I ever?” David tore off a piece of bread and spread it with cheese. ”Do you want some?” He offered it in Eudo's direction. ”It's good.”
”I'm not hungry.” Eudo shot him a rebellious glare and said hatefully, ”Nay, wait, that's a lie.”
David waited, but Eudo didn't continue. Prodding him, David asked, ”What's the truth?”
”I can't tell you the truth.”
”Why not?”
”Because you told me to keep a civil tongue.”
The lad was so angry and so clever at tormenting David with it. He reminded David of his own daughter, and for the first time since his backside left that horse, David's mood lightened. ”It's a tough balance, isn't it? Very well, never mind the civil tongue.”
Eudo answered now with glee. ”I don't want to eat with you.”
”Hm.” David spread another piece of bread with cheese. ”That is tough. It's hard to remain hostile when you share a tray. That's why when two enemies share a table, it cancels all animosity. But only for the evening. Come and eat now, and you can hate me again tomorrow.” Dunking the bread in the soup, David slurped it noisily. ”This tastes good!” He did it again, then speared a slice of lamb and waved it so the scent wafted across to Eudo. In a singsong voice, he said, ”I wager this tastes good, too.”
Eudo glared and weighed the situation, but he didn't have a chance. He was a page, the last to eat, and a growing boy. When David folded lamb into the bread and took a bite, he gave up the struggle. Climbing on the bed, he sat facing David as David carved the loaf into a bowl and served him. Wisely, David kept his silence until the two of them had demolished almost everything on the tray.
Eudo's motions slowed, and David waited for the first question. But Eudo didn't seem to be able to ask, so David broke the silence. ”Did you take care of Louis after my fall?”
Relieved, Eudo nodded vigorously. ”Aye, and he was good for me. The other stableboys couldn't believe it, and Siwate tried to make him buck while I was inside the stall, and Louis bit him.”
”I told you Louis would care for you,” David said.
”Then Siwate said-” Eudo took a breath, ”-that it probably wasn't King Louis at all.”
”Who is it, then?”
”Siwate said it probably isn't even...are you really the legendary mercenary Sir David of Radcliffe?” Eudo asked.
David thought himself braced, but nothing could have prepared him for the hurt the lad inflicted with that simple, honest query. ”Who else would I be?”
”I don't know.” Eudo shrugged. ”Siwate said you killed him on the road and took his things so everyone'd think you're him.”
”Siwate had better hope that's not true, or they'll find his little body buried beneath the floorboards,” David snapped. Then Eudo shrank back, and he was sorry. ”I'm really Sir David of Radcliffe. I'm just a little older than the legend you speak of.”
”You can't protect our lady if you fly off a horse like that whenever you face another...knight.”
David read Eudo's mind. ”And Hugh's not even a knight.” Hiding his face with the napkin, David wiped his mouth until he could speak without showing his grief. ”I know how to be the best. I just need to practice. In the morning, I'll be in the training yard.”
”But when will we ride the estate to see if there's mischief afoot?”
”Do you want to go with me as you always have?”
Eudo thought first, then answered, ”Aye.”
”Then we'll go in the afternoon tomorrow, but we'll have to ride at different times every day. If there's someone watching who wishes to harm Lady Alisoun, then we shouldn't lull him with consistency, especially not now. Not after my...defeat.” David said the word steadily, and that accomplishment encouraged him to think he might survive this humiliation. Handing Eudo the napkin, he said, ”Wipe your face.”
Eudo did as instructed, then wadded it and placed it on the tray. ”But that person seems to know what goes on inside the castle. Some of the servants think he is inside the castle. And now he'll know that you're not so wonderful as we thought.”