Free Once a Knight by Christina Dodd Page B

supposed to.
    Alisoun beheld it fondly. “Home,” she whispered.
    She behaved as if George’s Cross Castle would protect her, but she’d hired him for more than the ride from Lancaster to the castle. She’d hired him to protect her, even at her beloved home. Because someone had threatened her? Because…“What’s this tale of an arrow shot at you?”
    â€œAn arrow?”
    He had hoped to startle her. He hadn’t succeeded. If she’d been cool before, now she was glacial. Icy, unemotional, uninterested.
    He didn’t believe it for a moment. “Ivo blurted it out last night. He was angry because I wasn’t prepared to protect you from murder.”
    â€œMurder?” Bringing her palfrey to a halt, she turned to face him with a sincerely amused smile playing around her lips.
    It aroused his suspicious.
    â€œI love Ivo, I really do. He’s been my personal man-at-arms for years. But I’m sure you realize he’s a bit weevil-headed, God bless him. He sees danger where there is none. You’ll forgive him.”
    Louis stood taller than the palfrey. David stood higher than Alisoun. Together, the stallion and the man towered over Alisoun and her mount, and it gave him afeeling of superiority. False superiority, he knew. Alisoun hoarded the truth and dispensed only as much as she believed necessary.
    â€œM’lady.” A male voice hailed from the top of the curtain wall. “M’lady, ye’re home!”
    Alisoun looked up and waved, then waved again. David saw the line of heads bobbing around the crenelations. These were her people, and if she escaped into the welcome of her servants, he would lose his chance to question her in private. He reached for the reins of her palfrey; she pulled them aside and said, “You’re our guest. I’ll ride ahead and have them prepare your bath.”
    He almost fell out of his saddle. If Louis hadn’t moved to catch him, he would have. “A bath?”
    â€œA knightly bath. The honor which is bestowed on every knight who visits.” Her voice deepened with relish. “It is proper.”
    â€œNot at my home.”
    â€œOf course not. That’s obvious.” As enthusiastic as he’d ever seen her, she waved at her people. “You have no woman to perform the service.”
    He couldn’t pretend that he didn’t know about the custom. He did. He had been a guest in other great homes, been bathed by the wives and daughters of his host—but not for a long time, and never when he’d been celibate for so extended a period. “Your maids are going to give me a bath?”
    â€œCertainly.”
    â€œNot you?”
    â€œNay.”
    He heaved a sigh of relief.
    â€œI’ll supervise.”

5
    We squires were in the training yard that day, and I’ll never forget the look on Sir Walter’s face when he heard Lady Alisoun had brought Sir David of Radcliffe back to George’s Cross .
    Hugh was almost a man grown and as good as any experienced knight. Sir Walter bragged about him, and noblemen came from miles around to watch him spar and to try to woo him from Lady Alisoun’s tutelage with promises of an early knighthood and plunder from battle. Hugh bided his time, knowing that Lady Alisoun would treat him generously when the moment came .
    Andrew was seventeen and not nearly as impressive to my young eyes. And Jennings…well, Jennings was but fourteen, superior only to me, but never letting me forget it. Hugh and Andrew were sparring under Sir Walter’s critical gaze while Jennings and I fought with wooden swords, and Jennings was defeating me soundly .
    Sir Walter had grabbed my arm and was berating me as a stupid lad when one of his toadies from the villagecame running, yelling that the lady of George’s Cross had arrived. Sir Walter broke off his tirade and shoved me away. “She made it back, did she?” he said. “About