Free The Mermaid's Knight by Jill Myles Page B

pretty.”
    Uncomfortable, Leah gave her another faint smile and looked away, picking at a thread on one of her cuffs. Did she look sad? Perhaps that was why Royce had taken such an interest in her – he imagined her as the sad, lonely ex-mistress of his greatest enemy. Easy pickings.
    She didn’t want him to think of her as sad. She wanted him to fall in love with her, damn it. Four days down, twenty-seven to go.
    When she finished dressing, she followed Ginny down the winding corridors to the great hall. Leah could hear the low rumble of talking voices as they drew closer. Her heart hammered in her throat, and she began to hope fervently that no one would notice their arrival. Ginny gave
    her an encouraging smile over her shoulder moments before throwing open the double doors that led to the main hall.
    The room was enormously noisy. Crowded, too. The long rows of tables were packed full of men. Soldiers, judging by the common cut of their clothing. A few of them had knowing looks on their faces as they glanced at her, then at the head table.
    Leah’s gaze followed theirs. Royce sat at the front of the room, a predatory half-smile on his face that made her knees weak. His gaze shifted over her figure, outlined in the dark green dress, and then back to her face. He looked handsome tonight, she noticed, with his hair neatly combed, his face clean-shaven, and a dark tunic covering his broad shoulders. He sat at the head of his table in a massive chair with a wooden back that rose up behind him. One of his men sat to his left, and no one sat to his right.
    She suspected that place was being held for her. As she watched, Royce arched a brow, taunting her. Challenging her. Daring her to turn tail and run from his staring men and the acknowledgement that she would be his leman.
    She didn’t. Straightening her shoulders, Leah smoothed her skirt with nervous hands and fixed a brilliant smile on her face. Let him take that. She’d be as beautiful and charming as he wanted her to be tonight.
    And elusive, she decided, spotting an empty seat at the end of a nearby table. The rough-looking men gave her surprised looks when she sat down. Well, she’d eat fast and then return to her own chambers.
    “Mistress!” Ginny’s voice materialized behind her shoulder and she turned. “You can’t sit there!” The girl sounded scandalized. “‘Tis below the salt!”
    Below the salt? What was she talking about? Leah glanced down the table and noticed that all the men were staring at her with rather surprised looks on their faces, and she flushed.
    She’d done it again – some medieval faux pas she wasn’t even aware of. Quickly she stood, gathering her skirts and giving Ginny a helpless look.
    Ginny took charge. She gave a firm tug and pulled Leah toward the front of the room.
    The look on Royce’s face was inscrutable as Ginny dragged her forward and sat her in the chair to the right of his.
    Leah sat, her mind racing even as she kept the serene smile on her face. She felt like she was on display at the front of the room. She glanced down at the table. There were no utensils for her, no goblet, but all the same she felt as if it had been waiting for her.
    Royce had been waiting for her.
    Leah clasped her hands in her lap and turned her serene smile to him.
    He was not smiling back at her. A dark look shadowed his face and her smile momentarily faltered at his expression. Royce leaned in and loomed over her face, his eyes searching hers. “No matter how Lord Rutledge may have treated you, madam, when you belong to me, you do not sit below the salt. To do so is an insult to my name as well as yours. Do you understand me?”
    Leah flushed. He had misunderstood her error, thinking that Lord Rutledge had sat her in a place of indignity to insult her? She was painting the man to be quite the devil, wasn’t she?
    When he reached for her hand and pulled it into his own, her eyes flew to his face. Gone was the grim expression, and in its