Part 21 (1/2)

Edlyn spoke matter-of-factly. ”New lovers want all attention for themselves.”

”And how do you know that?”

”Philippa told me.”

”Philippa discussed Sir David and me with you?”

”Philippa tells me much, trying to prepare me for marriage,” Edlyn answered.

Feeling irked and strangely hurt, Alisoun said, ”If you have questions, you should come to me.”

”I thank you, my lady, but although your experience in most issues I hold in the utmost respect, in this one issue I would prefer Philippa's council.”

Edlyn spoke pleasantly, giving the rebuke in a manner Alisoun recognized-it was much like her own.

Walking toward the training yard, Alisoun kept her spine stiff and her shoulders squared, and everyone moved well back, bowing and tugging at their forelocks.

”My lady.” Sir Walter bowed before her and Lady Edlyn. He kept a constant eye on the proceedings in the training yard and scowled at any bold souls who came too near to Alisoun. ”Have you once again come to watch your expensive apprentice?”

Alisoun's gaze lingered on the two men who engaged in throwing light lances at a straw target, and she didn't make the mistake of thinking Sir Walter spoke of Hugh. From the irritation in his voice, she guessed that David had been antagonizing him again.

Before she could try and ease his offense, he held out his hand, palm up. ”Never mind me, my lady. I try not to be offended by his hostility, for I fear I deeply offended him when I opened him to the ridicule of your folk.”

”That could be the reason for his rude and unnecessary animosity, of course, but I expect more from my...” she hesitated.

”Consort,” Sir Walter promptly finished.

Edlyn giggled.

Alisoun glared.

Holding out the flat of his hand, Sir Walter looked toward the sky. ”We're due for another rain soon, I suspect.”

Alisoun couldn't take teasing. Not about that. Not about a legend it seemed all of her people believed.

Sir Walter realized it, because his expression changed from teasing to compa.s.sion, and he said, ”I beg you, my lady, pardon me. I thought to ease your discomfort about that legend, but I will mention it no more.”

She nodded gratefully, then with none too much grace, she changed the subject. ”What do Ivo and Gunnewate think of Sir David's improving skill?”

Sir Walter's face changed at once. Harshly, he said, ”I don't ask men-at-arms their opinions.”

Sir Walter might have sought reconciliation by humbling himself to her, Alisoun realized, but he still thought well of himself. A crab didn't file his claws, but waved them to display his strength. Sir Walter was a crab.

Unaware of her amus.e.m.e.nt, he continued, ”I seldom have seen a man blessed with a combination of such natural skill and dogged determination as Sir David.” He stroked the dangling strands of his beard. ”I'm not saying you got what you paid for, understand. If it were me, I'd be demanding he account for his failures. But you're a woman, easily led astray, and at least he's willing to better himself.” He leaned against the fence and muttered loudly enough for her to hear, ”He'd be a fool not to, with the gold you're paying him.”

A yell from the field distracted her before she could chide Sir Walter. Glancing up, she saw Hugh go down under an unexpected attack from David. In only a moment, David had Hugh pinned, a knife at his throat. ”Wha-what happened?” she stammered, climbing up on the bottom rail of the fence to catch a better view.

”I like that.” Sir Walter grinned. ”He's knocking the arrogance right out of Hugh. I can't tell the youth anything anymore. My woman says I'm like a father to him, and since he's grown beyond my skills, he doesn't listen to a word I say. That David has taught him a thing or two.”

”I don't understand.”

”David heard Hugh say a true knight doesn't use a paltry weapon like a knife for any reason but to spear his meat. But David's teaching him differently. Told him that a mercenary knight spent more time in dark streets and isolated inns than in tournaments and sieges. Said Hugh had best learn to defend himself from others, poorer even than a mercenary, who would seek his armor and his horse with the point of a dagger.” Sir Walter nodded as David took the point of the knife away from Hugh's throat and offered a hand. ”In this area, at least, David is by far Hugh's superior.”

Hugh took David's hand in every evidence of grat.i.tude, then jerked his mentor down and over his head. While David floundered, Hugh jumped on his back and began pounding his face into the gra.s.s. Alisoun didn't see what happened next, but she thought it had to do with David's elbow, for Hugh doubled up and rolled off, groaning.

David levered himself up, leaned over Hugh, and said something. From the smirk he cast on the writhing youth, it obviously wasn't a compliment.

”My lady, may I go to him?” Edlyn asked.

For one wild, jealous moment, Alisoun thought Edlyn wanted to help David. Good sense returned, and she realized Edlyn spoke of Hugh. Curtly, she said, ”Nay. Go inside and ask Philippa to help you with your spinning.” Edlyn didn't move, and Alisoun turned on her sharply. ”Now!”

Edlyn gave a little sob as she fled, and Alisoun saw the horror on Sir Walter's features as he realized Edlyn's infatuation. She could see the words hovering on the tip of his tongue-You're setting a bad example for the girl-but he restrained himself.

She was setting a bad example, she knew, but she had no choice. At various times, her conscience smote her, and she tried to barricade the door of her bedchamber or refuse to have commerce with her lover, but David would not accept nay for an answer.

In an undertone, Sir Walter asked, ”Have you told your hero yet why you hired him to protect you?”

”'Tis not necessary that he know,” she answered as quietly. ”Only that he do it.”

”He's a hard man.” Sir Walter watched as David strolled toward them. ”What makes you think he will see it any differently than I do?”

She wanted to say that he would. In sooth, life had made David hard, but he showed compa.s.sion every day-to Eudo, to the servants, to all who had not his strength. But he was a man, and what man would ever support her in her course?

The doubt Sir Walter saw in her face satisfied him, for he smiled without humor. ”Aye, and he could lose everything for a.s.sisting you. Everything he's labored for all his life. Have you thought on how he will extract his vengeance on you for that?”

David loomed over Sir Walter's shoulder. Dirt and blood stained his face, and he clearly didn't like the whispered conversation he'd interrupted, but with every evidence of respect, he bowed before her. ”My lady.”

”Sir David.” She nodded graciously, playing the game as it should be played. It was absurd, she supposed, to be so formal when Sir David disappeared into her solar every night and never left until the morning, but he seemed to want everyone to know he still respected her person and her station.

He nodded as well to Sir Walter, and Sir Walter nodded back. ”Good work,” he said gruffly, jerking his thumb toward the still-groveling Hugh. ”Out there.”

”Aye. The practice goes well. Hugh improves every day.” David turned to Alisoun. ”As do I.”

”Both Hugh's progress and your own are pleasing to me.” Her answer came automatically even as she confronted again the effort he made every day to bring his body back to its former condition. She admired his persistence with every fiber of her being, as well as his unfailing sense of humor in the face of his occasional humiliating failure.

If only he acted more like other men in every way, she would have better luck dismissing his pretensions. If only he had strutted and crowed the morning after she yielded to him, rather than acting irritated. With her! As if she had denied him something that was his right.

”The other squires are performing well, too.” David spoke as Eudo came across the field, dragging a full bucket. Accepting a dipper of water from the lad, he drank deeply, then took a white rag from Eudo's hand and smeared it across his own face in a halfhearted effort at cleanliness. Alisoun winced as the cloth sc.r.a.ped across old scabs and new wounds. ”And Eudo is a constant companion.” David smiled down at Eudo, opening the cut on his lip where fresh blood now oozed.

She couldn't stand it anymore. She climbed through the fence rails, took the rag from his hand, and dipped it in the bucket. ”Sit down,” she told David, and while Eudo dragged over a stool for his master, she said, ”Eudo exceeds all expectations in performance both on the field and in the keep. Now sit down, Sir David.”

David bowed in ready deference. ”As you command, my lady.” Sinking onto the stool, he turned his face up to hers, closed his eyes and awaited her ministrations.

She glanced around. Everyone, especially her own people, leaned over the fence, waiting with avid attention for her to touch him. It wasn't as if she had never tended another's wound. She was the lady, required by tradition to care for the injured. But her folk seemed to see this as something special, a sign of her emotions.

It wasn't. She couldn't stand to see dirt. They knew that. And no woman with a shred of compa.s.sion would leave a man to bleed.