Never If Not Now - Madeline Hunter Page 0,24
either scolded or warned. With Lord Yves angry enough to demand this private meeting to express his displeasure, she wondered at the miracle that once again they had been invited to dine in the Great Hall.
Her father walked toward her. She rose and fell into step with him. “What did he want?”
“It is what he doesn’t want, which is trouble inside his home. He commanded me to speak not one word to Sir Alexander tonight or be banished from these lands.”
She could tell her father resented being called to task like this. She sympathized, but if it kept rash words from being spoken, she was grateful to Lord Yves.
The meal would make her grateful too. As they walked down from the solar, she could smell the food being cooked out in the kitchen. Wonderful odors wafted through the castle.
“It will vex me, not to remind Alexander of his cowardice and how he will soon pay for it,” her father said, proving he did not think about the food.
“He was injured yesterday. Perhaps he can’t fight anymore this week.”
“He met several men today. And how do you know he was injured?”
“I heard about it while I was buying bread.”
“Hardly a wound that would keep a knight from fighting, but with a coward, one never knows.”
“Everyone saw the blood. Everyone saw how he charged even after being wounded. If you call him a coward for declining a challenge due to an injury—”
“How do you know about the blood, and how he charged?” He looked over at her suspiciously.
“I told you, many people were talking about it.”
“So now you worry he will not be fit for a challenge. Look at me, daughter. Watch me walk with one leg half sideways, like a crab. His wound is nothing in comparison and will be sufficiently healed by morning.”
They entered the Great Hall. Everyone was seated, and platters were arriving. A page brought her father to a spot on the lord’s left side. He escorted Elinor to one five places down from the lord on his right.
Zander again sat beside her, and Lady Judith again on his right. No priest warmed her left this evening. A knight had that place, one who was very tall and so blond it appeared the sun had kissed his hair. She learned he had come from Norway to compete. His English proved minimal but enough for humorous attempts at conversation. She knew nothing of his language, so all she could do was help him try to find enough English words to express himself.
“He is trying to seduce you.” Zander’s low voice flowed to her ear while she paused to help herself to some venison.
“I think he is only trying to be friendly and courteous.”
“So he can seduce you.”
“Is that how knights behave? They use good manners to seduce women?”
“Absolutely.”
She turned to him and saw Lady Judith over his shoulder. “Is that why you were deep into friendly conversation with that widow beside you when I sat down?”
“Partly.”
He didn’t even blush at the admission.
She decided a bit of boldness of her own was in order. “Have you visited that chamber she so generously invited you to?”
Zander leaned back in his chair, which gave her a good view of the widow, and the widow of her. Lady Judith made much of cutting her food but kept sending sidelong glances her way.
“No,” Zander finally said, as if he needed time to think about the answer.
“Ah, then you pursue a bigger prize than her.”
“I do.”
Elinor gazed out over the crowded tables, then down the high one in each direction, seeking pretty eyes that might be watching Zander. “Is she here?”
“Yes.”
She spied two girls, not much older than she had been when Zander left Sir Morris’s manor. Both had a sweet freshness to them that only youth can impart, and that made any female of that age pretty. One sat with a woman dripping in silver chains. The other was Lord Marcus’s red-haired daughter.
A sad, hollow spot opened in her stomach, one that food would not fill. She imagined Zander with either one of those girls, and the handsome couple they would make. She pictured him smiling, and those stars leaping out of his blue eyes.
She stiffened her emotions. She turned to him. “Is your arm feeling better?”
“Much better. The burn needs salve, but I can move it without pain.” He moved his elbow up and down to prove it. He favored her with a smile that made her insides flutter. “Your help made