surprise. Who would he talk to now on the road? Who would he plot and scheme with round the campfire? Who would have his back in a barroom brawl? He could hardly expect a princess to make him a decent new business partner.
He should be glad to be rid of his association with the weaselly Fulcher, he told himself sternly. It was tiring how the fellow did not believe the brawn should take the lion’s share. He knew full well that Fulcher believed himself to be the brains of their operation, but enough was enough. Hiring four thugs to beat him in an alleyway was not the act of a once-trusted accomplice.
If mourning the loss of his companion achieved something, it was a total quenching of his burgeoning lust. Loosening the strings of his coin purse thoughtfully, he carried it over to the bed, spilling half of its contents onto the blankets. “Here,” he said. “You take half.”
Una glanced around from where she was fastening her front lacings. Her eyes widened at the gleam of gold coins. “I already have some money that Lord Vawdrey provided,” she started, but he waved this aside.
“Just put it in your pack or in your alms purse,” he recommended, retying the string of the pouch, and throwing it on the chair next to his tunic. Then he walked back to the basin and soaped up his jaw to shave. After a moment, he heard the chink of coins and realized she was taking his advice.
“I suppose,” she said, retrieving her saddlebag. “That it would be as well for me to divide it between my purse and my pack. If our wealth is split between the two of us, and then between our baggage, then we have some safeguard if the one of us was unfortunate enough to be robbed.”
He grunted in agreement, dragging the straight blade down his chin.
“Have you ever been robbed before, traveling on the road between tournaments?” she asked.
Armand shook his head. “I ride a massive destrier and carry a sword at my hip,” he pointed out dryly, then hesitated. “Have you?” He watched her in the looking glass as he dunked his razor in the bowl of water. Una hesitated before she shook her head and he was quick to pick up on it.
It struck him, that he might do well to set more store by what she did not say, than by what she did. “You’ve had some experience, I deduce,” he said and saw her look up in dismay.
“No, no,” she protested weakly. “For I always traveled with a personal guard of at least three men, even when split off from my father’s forces.”
“A personal guard?” he echoed. “What happened to them, when you were captured?”
“They were captured also,” she said simply, then caught sight of his expression. “You must not imagine I formed any attachment, for they were very rarely the same men. My father kept them in strict rotation, so no bonds were formed.”
Armand frowned. “And why was that?”
Again, she paused before answering. “In case of betrayal or some conspiracy against him.”
Armand’s eyebrows shot up, but Una was not attending him as she was tucking some money in the foot of one stocking. He still wondered at her stricken expression when he had mentioned thievery, but he did not have time to pursue that right now. Instead he dried off his face and made haste to dress. He avoided the gold and burgundy chauses and opted instead for an old black pair out of his pack.
“If you let me have the torn one, I will mend it for you,” Una said, looking around from where she was pinning her veil in the dressing mirror.
“Pardon?”
“The gold legging. I noticed last night it was ripped.”
Armand looked down at the chauses he had bunched ready to shove into his bag. “Oh, right,” he muttered. Was it? He picked out the gold one and tossed it on the bed next to Una’s things. “Thank you,” he said, resigning himself to the fact he would likely have to wear odd legs again at some point.
“I can make you a new hat as well, if you like?” she suggested helpfully.
Armand knew for a fact he had managed to lose that damned feather cap at some point last night and had rejoiced in its loss. “I don’t usually wear them,” he said firmly and saw her silently mouth “Oh.”
“Let’s make a pact,” he said on impulse.
Una turned about and approached him with interest.