WolfeStrike (De Wolfe Pack Generations #2) - Kathryn Le Veque Page 0,20

wife, he’d made a habit of shutting out the weaker sex. Jane had been the only woman in the world for him and he never expected to replace her. In fact, even thinking about another wife made him feel unfaithful to Jane. She had been gone all of these years, but she still wasn’t gone from his heart.

The memory lingered.

At least, that was the impression he lived with every day. But in looking at the young woman’s lovely face, he could feel a tug on his heart, that cold and dormant thing that lived inside of him. He realized that he wanted to go with her and he wanted the company of a lovely young woman, and that made him feel guilty. It had been nearly seventeen years since he last held company with a beautiful young woman and he thought it wasn’t something he missed at all until this very moment.

Something inside him was stirring.

Glancing over his right shoulder, he could see that Nat had already made the turn onto the road south. They were both here on business, and nothing more, and he felt a little strange deviating from that plan. But when he looked at Isalyn’s face again, he didn’t care that he was about to deviate.

He was rather intrigued by it.

“Very well,” he said after a moment. “Let me catch up to my companion and tell him. Where would you have me meet you?”

Isalyn pointed back towards the town center. “There is a small place on the other side of the square called the Crown and Sword,” she said. “It is not much to look at, but the food is excellent. My father will come to town just to eat there.”

“That is as good a recommendation as any,” he said. “I will join you there shortly.”

With that, he directed Enbarr forward again, thinking about what he was going to tell Nat. Nat wasn’t invited, of course, and he wasn’t sure how he was going to break that to him. He could explain away the woman well enough – that she simply wanted to thank him for saving her – but he wondered if Nat would be able to read his thoughts.

Thoughts that suggested he was more than willing to join her.

When he finally caught up to Nat, the man fortunately didn’t read his mind because he was too busy being annoyed at the delay. Now he was going to have to patiently wait for Tor as a grateful lady paid for a meal. Tor promised Nat that he would bring him food, which seemed to be the only thing to placate the knight, who now had to mind two horses and a corpse while Tor was off cavorting with a grateful maiden.

It hardly seemed fair.

But Tor really didn’t care.

CHAPTER THREE

“I swear to you that I have never fallen from a horse,” Isalyn said. “I’ve never even needed help. This was a first.”

Tor wasn’t so sure he believed her but, at the moment, it didn’t matter. He was too busy being fascinated.

By her.

The Crown and Sword was a small establishment. It was nestled between two bakers’ stalls and had the invariable distinction of always smelling like fresh bread. It was also quite warm because of the heat from the bakers’ ovens that used common walls. Coupled with the heat from a hearth that was as tall as a man, it was a very warm place.

Tor wasn’t quite sure if he was sweating because of all of the heat or if it was because of the company he kept. He was dressed as he normally did, in a padded tunic, mail coat, and a heavy de Wolfe tunic. All of the heavy and protective clothing that went with what a knight usually wore. He was normally comfortable in the garb because the temperatures in the north could be quite cold but, at the moment, he was sweating buckets as he sat across the table from lovely Isalyn.

He resisted the urge to strip off anything.

This wasn’t the place, nor the time, for it. He remained fully clothed, wiping at his sweaty face once in a while. The small establishment they were in was really no larger than a home and there were just a few tables, all full of people enjoying what was perhaps one of the finest meals Tor had ever eaten. Unlike most establishments, which were mostly meant for drink, this one seemed to be meant mostly for food. It was quiet and there was no entertainment