be that night on the ramparts … how very apologetic you were for the misunderstanding in the armoury … how very forgiving you were even after I called you a bastard in front of your peers.”
“I am a bastard, my lady,” he said, bowing sardonically.
“You are also adept at changing subjects when you do not wish to discuss them.”
Eduard smiled faintly and turned his head enough for the light to glint gold on his lashes and to trace over the puckered flesh of the scarred cheek. “You are absolutely correct, my lady: I have no wish to discuss Reginald de Braose with you.”
“Why? Because of what he did to your face? Or because he is somehow a part of the other reason why you are going back to England?”
“Other reason?” he asked carefully.
“My uncle tried to tell me your presence on this journey was crucial because of your familiarity with the land and your friendship with the rebel lords of Brittany. As such, it was a reasonable explanation, yet lacking several merits.”
Eduard crossed his arms over his chest and found himself almost as intrigued with the way her mouth formed the words as with the words themselves.
“Go on,” he urged. “You have won my complete attention.”
“The first incongruity,” she said evenly, “is that you have not, by your own admission, been back to England in thirteen years. Not since your father rescued you from the donjons of Bloodmoor Keep.”
Eduard’s gaze made the slow climb from her mouth to her eyes. “Robin,” he mused. “I am glad he has been keeping you entertained with our family history.”
“Some of it I knew already, but he is justifiably proud of his father and half brother, although it would be difficult for him to feel otherwise, I would venture to say, even if only half of the accomplishments he credits you are true.”
“You are too kind,” he murmured dryly. “And is that your dilemma? Do you find these stories hard to believe?”
“Not at all. I believe every one of them. If anything, I find it difficult to believe you would ever want to set foot in England again—for any reason. And please, do not patronize me by quoting any more oaths of honour. An oath to see me safely to the coast at St. Malo would have been sufficient. An oath from Henry and Sedrick to see me the rest of the way across the Channel and into England would have been equally sufficient.”
“A fair point to argue,” he admitted, “but hardly enough proof to condemn us as plotters and conspirators.” “I have more.”
“I am, dear lady, breathless with anticipation.”
“Breathe a little longer, my lord,” she pleaded sweetly, “and I will tell you what I see before me. I see a man who has no love of England or its king … truth or falsehood?”
“Truth,” he admitted after a moment.
She copied his stance, folding her arms over her chest and squaring her shoulders. “I also see a man who has—also by his own admission—no vast knowledge of England’s roads and byways.”
“North is north in any country,” he reminded her. “What is more, your brother has been scratching out such faithful maps these past few nights, I feel I could find my way to Gwynedd … or Radnor … with my helm on backwards.”
Ariel dismissed his sarcasm with an airy wave of her hand. “I also see a man who has only the prospect of being entertained in one of the king’s prisons as his reward for being recognized or caught on the other side of the Channel. I see all of this and I am forced to wonder why you would do it. I am driven to wonder what other reason is taking you so far from a home and a battlefield where your vaunted talents could be put to better use. I had thought revenge to be part of the motive when I first heard of the connection—dare I say coincidence—with De Braose. But no. Somehow it seems too petty an impulse, too lacking in the glory befitting such a noble champion.”
Only Eduard’s jaw flexed in response to her sarcasm and he wondered how someone could change from being an object of lust one moment to an object sorely in want of a good shaking the next. His hand did shoot out, but not to strike or throttle. He had caught sight of Robin returning to the pilgrim’s hall and wanted to halt the boy before he came close enough to interrupt.
He need