so he was not insulted. He smiled in agreement, but then raised an eyebrow. “Do you have a special friendship with Lady Judith? I ask because everyone saw her pursuit of you at the feast last night, and she honored you with her favor at your joust this morning. I am not a priest. I do not care from what well you have been drinking these midsummer nights.”
“There is nothing between Lady Judith and me, except fancy dancing on my part to escape her.”
Lord Marcus roared with laughter. “You have good wits if you knew to run. She is insatiable and bedded other men freely even while her husband lived. It is said a week in her bower will drain a man of his seed for a year.” He stood. “I will continue to contemplate my daughter’s future, and we will speak again after the melee. In the meantime, you have my permission to dance with Matilda after the evening feasts.”
Elinor donned the blue wool that evening. She fixed those long, gaping sleeves so that the new embroidery showed, and tightened the lacing on the side. She settled her good cinture around her hips and draped a thin veil on her head. At her father’s insistence she used one of her coins to hire a wagon to bring them to the castle.
“You should have worn your mother’s diadem,” her father said, giving her a critical examination as he helped her out of the cart.
“I did not bring it.” She had, in truth, but not for wearing. When necessary she pried one of the tiny precious stones out of the gold netting, to sell. Her father knew nothing of that.
Together they walked into the Great Hall.
Her father was as happy as she had seen since he returned from France. Ever since that page arrived with the greetings and invitation to dine with Lord Yves, he hadn’t stopped grinning. She was glad for him, truly. She just wished that she did not feel like such a peasant as she followed some very beautiful garments up the stairs.
A large crowd filled the hall. Retainers of the honored lords and knights sat at long tables, joining the castle folk. The high table stretched over twenty arm spans. Among the ladies sitting near its center were two wearing jewels from which the candles drew colored sparks.
A page announced them, but with the din in the hall no one much noticed. She began looking for a board onto which they could squeeze.
Her father touched her arm and subtly pointed. From the center of the high table a man of perhaps forty years, dark of hair and eye, gestured for them to come forward.
“We’re to sit at the high table, daughter.”
“He can’t mean for us to sit up there. He only wants to greet you, I’m sure. You said you knew him.”
“We’ll see, but I’m thinking he also knows of my reputation forged since those younger days and wants to honor me. I told you we should come to this tourney, and that it would change our fortunes.”
Elinor doubted the fortunes part, but she was proud to walk beside her father and be greeted by Lord Yves, who spoke as if he indeed knew her father from years gone by.
He introduced them to a gray-haired man to his right. Lord Marcus eyed them both while he exchanged pleasantries, then turned his attention to the woman beside him. She was Lady Margaret, his wife. A young girl, flame-haired like her mother, sat quietly between them.
“Lady Elinor, you accompany your father alone? Has your husband not joined us too?” Lord Yves asked.
“I have no husband, sir.”
“A widow, then?”
“No, sir.” How embarrassing to admit this in front of his most important guests.
“It is an oversight that I intend to rectify this week,” her father said with a conspiratorial wink.
Elinor’s face burned. She would kill her father when she got him back to that tent.
“Ah, a betrothal. Such are the merry happenings at a good tourney,” Lord Yves said. “My page will show you your places, and we will talk later.”
Her father took her hand ceremoniously and guided her in the shadow of the page, who led them along the wall behind the high table.
“How could you say that?” she hissed lowly.
“He has no woman near him that looks to be his wife or leman,” he whispered. “I’ll warrant we’re sitting up here because he thought you are beautiful.”
She looked back at their host. “You are truly mad now. Such