to concentrate on the complicated steps. His mind tended to wander to more interesting matters, and he soon lost track of what he was supposed to be doing, which led to losing his place in the dance, or worse, trampling on Osgoode's toes.
"You need to at least be able to dance with the woman tonight after the feast without crushing her feet if you wish to impress her at all," Osgoode insisted. "It would not be so important had you not managed to insult her on the walk." Balan scowled. He still was not sure how he'd managed to mess things up so badly. But it had led to this last hour of misery, going through the steps of the dance with Osgoode. He felt ridiculous dancing with his cousin and would have called a halt to the practice if not for the news Osgoode's page had gained while listening in on the conversation between Malculinus and Lauda Aldous.
Of course the pair had been quite distressed by the news that, rather than Malculinus, Murie claimed to have dreamt of Balan. The two had spent several moments trying to sort out how that had happened, until Lauda had forced Malculinus to confess that, while he did recall going to Murie's room, he had no recollection of actually either waking or kissing the girl. He'd also admitted that he was not sure how he made it back to his room. The last thing he remembered was approaching her bed and then waking up in his own. He'd woken with a splitting headache and three bumps on his head.
Lauda had pretty much put together what had happened. Her opinion was that Balan had taken advantage of their plot, knocked Malculinus out and woken the girl himself on purpose. The Aldouses had no idea that Murie's seeing him had not been part of Balan's plan. As he'd suspected out in the garden, the pair had come up with a way to try to expose his presence in her boudoir: to claim that Lauda had seen him enter Murie's chamber, but hadn't realized it was Murie's until she'd seen her coming out of it this morning - else she would have surely called the guard. Of course, that plot had been ruined when Murie denied dreaming of anyone.
Positive that the pair would not now let the matter lie but would come up with another plan - either to expose Balan's presence in Murie's room last night or to find another way to trick the girl into marrying Malculinus - Osgoode and Balan had sent their spy to trail the brother and sister and see if he could learn what they might come up with.
"Come." Osgoode moved back across the room and turned to face Balan. "We shall start again. This time, try to recall you approach me on my right."
Heaving a heartfelt sigh, Balan took up his position, then nodded to his squire. The fifteen-year-old promptly began to play a tune on his lute, and Balan and Osgoode began again to dance.
"Perhaps a test of knowledge?" Emilie said.
Murie stopped pacing to contemplate the suggestion, then asked, "What kind of knowledge?"
"History?" Emilie suggested after a moment to consider. Murie wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "I have never fared well at history. I always get dates and names mixed up."
"Ah." Emilie's eyebrows drew together in concentration. The two women were briefly silent. "What are you good at?" Murie stopped pacing and pursed her lips in thought. "I am quite good at chess."
"Chess!" Emilie stood. "That is perfect! I know Balan plays chess. He has done so with Reginald at Reynard."
"Good," Murie said, relieved to have the matter settled. After the last hour of pondering the possibilities, and not coming up with anything suitable, she'd begun to think it was an incredibly stupid idea to challenge him to a duel of intellect. But Murie was very good at chess. She often played the king - or at least had in the past. Much to his chagrin, she'd begun to win quite frequently, and he'd stopped playing with her.
"Let us go find Lord Balan and tell him what we have come up with," Emilie said. "Mayhap you can even play now." Nodding, Murie led the way to the door. The moment they were in the hall, however, she began to grow nervous.
"I have not played the game in a while," she confessed with worry. "King Edward has refused to play with me because I keep beating