Free Noble Hearts 03 - The Courageous Heart by Merry Farmer

now?”
    He jogged to catch up to her in the cobblestone courtyard. “Where do you think you’re going?”
    “To the Tower,” she answered without hesitation.
    “You can’t.”
    “Watch me,” she retorted.
    When she pivoted to go Ethan caught her arms. She whipped to face him. Her momentum nearly swung her right into him. He caught her other arm to steady her. She glared up at him. He could feel the heat of her body, smell the scent that was uniquely Joanna. He knew it like he knew the fragrant waves of tall grass in Windale’s fields in the summer. The tempest of emotion in her eyes shot straight through him, as though not a day had passed. The air between them sizzled. He bent closer to her , mouth softening as it neared hers .
    “Get your filthy hands off of me!” she seethed.
    Ethan froze. Her rejection cut through the haze of memory and passion, lodging sharp in his gut. He let her go, pushed her away, and stormed back to the well.
    “Fine, go!” he called over his shoulder.
    “I will!” she shouted in reply.
    “Good!” He picked up the two full buckets of water and carried them towards the kitchen. “But don’t come crying to me when the Tower guards catch you.”
    To his bitter satisfaction, worry replaced the fury in her eyes. “They barely saw me yesterday,” she reasoned. “I’m not important enough for them to keep after me.”
    “If you say so.” Ethan shrugged and continued towards the kitchen door.
    “Well I’m not going to stay here and sit on my hands while Aubrey and Crispin and Jack need me!” She rushed ahead of him to hold the kitchen door.
    “I didn’t ask you to,” he replied. “But you aren’t going to be able to do anything at the Tower.”
    “Yes I will!” she argued. They hovered in the doorway, kitchen steam on one side, London mist on the other. “I’ll do whatever it takes to see that they are set free.”
    He clenched his jaw and stared at her. The man he had been hated when people refused to listen to him. That man was far closer to him now than he’d been in years. “Look, I know you’re anxious, but it’s not as though King Richard is going to order Crispin and Jack’s heads to be lopped off today.”
    “How do you know?” She was being deliberatel y contrary, but genuine fear radiated from her .
    “They’ve been having trials for weeks. Nobles have been summoned from every corner of the kingdom. Some of them have been executed, yes, but most are getting slaps on the wrists and fines. You’ll be far better off waiting things out than rushing into even more trouble.”
    “How do you know?” She crossed her arms in challenge. “Are you a courtier now as well as a stable boy?”
    She was arguing just to argue. It was her favorite weapon to use against him, always had been. “I’m not a courtier now and I never have been. You know that. But you can’t live in London these days without knowing what goes on at court.”
    “Well I most certainly do not live in London,” she snapped. “So forgive me if I go to court to find out what everyone else already knows.”
    His patience hung by the thinnest of threads. “ Listen to me. Court is held at the Tower and you can’t get in .”
    “What?”
    “Only nobility are allowed in the Tower without specific orders from the crown. They won’t let you in.”
    “They let you in yesterday and you look like a vagrant.”
    Ethan flushed. “I snuck in with a retinue of servants.”
    “You’re lying.” She was trying to keep up her end of the argum ent but her certainty wavered.
    “Am I?”
    “Dunkirke!” Ada shouted at him from the kitchen. “What in the bloody hell are you doing loitering over there when I need that water over here?”
    “If you will excuse me,” Ethan barked, “I have work to do. Listen to someone who knows what they’re talking about and stay out of trouble. Let things take their course. ”
    He brushed past her into the kitchen, sloshing water from the buckets to his