Free Once a Knight by Christina Dodd

feeling of confidence, to ease their fears for her. To frighten off that shadowy, unseen menace. In fact, there had been no incidents on this trip.She knew that for the first time in months, she’d gone three days without the sense of being watched.
    For that she owed him more than money, and as graciously as she could, she said, “I offer my home, Sir David. Make it yours.”
    Stunned by the riches in her demesne, he accepted, all the time fearing he gaped like a roast pig. True, he was nothing but the son of a baron, and a poor baron at that, but he hated feeling so much like a dairy maid before the king. Yet when he thought about Alisoun’s twelve sacks of wool, he was in awe. He didn’t even have enough carts to haul twelve sacks of wool, much less enough sheep to grow the fleece. Twelve sacks would support his estate for years!
    Lady Alisoun smiled at him, a smooth, practiced movement of her lips that conveyed hospitality. Then she spoke to the peasants crowding around him. “I have returned with grain to keep us until harvest.” Slowly the crowd turned to her. “When the carts have reached the castle, it will be counted and distributed, but remember, good people, that this must last until we’ve brought in our own crops, and if this summer is as dry as the last one and the one before that, it will be a hard winter. So take the burden of extra work with good cheer. Let us be sure that not one of our folk is lost to sloth.”
    Fenchel had regained his good sense, for he called, “Hear, hear!” and the crowd responded.
    Then they broke up. Fenchel and Alisoun moved to one side of the square. The men strode toward the fields, the women walked toward the large barnlike structure which held the wool.
    Well, most of the women walked toward the shed. Some of them had found something amiss with their clothing. Gunhild held her skirt up, adjusting the garters that held her stockings…except she wore nostockings. The sight of her bare leg almost stopped David’s heart, and her flirtatious glance made it clear she appreciated his appreciation.
    Pish! He tore his gaze away and found it immediately captured by Avina. Her shift seemed uncomfortably adjusted, and she unlaced her bodice and adjusted her breasts with a hand beneath each. They thrust upward and the dark nipples shone through thin—
    He jerked on Louis’s rein and, disgruntled, Louis jerked back. “She wants to bed a legend,” David told him. “She doesn’t care about me.”
    Louis snorted, and David had to agree. His groin ached from long disuse, and Louis knew that David’s mood markedly improved with regular swiving. The damned horse danced in place to give David another chance to stare, and David found himself watching the melons that swayed so enticingly.
    Alisoun paid him no attention. She didn’t care about him. She wouldn’t even notice if his glance lingered on the flaunted…“Nay!” More forcefully, David directed Louis to move on, and the horse did. Only a fool would gawk at a servant when the mistress was available—especially when the mistress was single and so wealthy her estate produced twelve sacks of wool for market.
    After all, it wasn’t as if Alisoun were homely. No, indeed. Her face was very…attractive. And her figure was acceptable…what he had seen of it beneath her voluminous cotte. And her hair flowed down her back like a glimmering river of…molten iron? His gaze lingered on the wimple and gorget she always wore just to thwart him. At least it seemed that way. Red. He’d swear he’d seen red in the dark, but how could such a reserved woman sport such an audacious color?
    He shook his head. No, it must be bland blond or reserved brown.
    As David rode toward Alisoun, Fenchel backed away, veneration manifested in every line of his slight body. Yet Alisoun watched David, and he would have sworn he saw a flash of