"Yea." Reaching awkwardly behind his shoulder, Ruck tried to unbuckle his cuirass, managing only the uppermost clasp. "But I think me he says little to his lord, for he is too shamed and wroth over the hart. E'en does he, what of it?" He gave up on the buckles, leaned against the wall, and bent down to unfasten his greaves.

"I like it not. Let us fly soon."

He looked up at her. She stood in the middle of the room, staring about at the walls and window with a troubled aspect. "My lady," he said. He straightened and walked to her. "Ye be nought at ease?"

"Nay." She lifted her eyes to his, and then averted them. "Nay, in truth I am not easy in this chamber."

He paused. Awkward silence swallowed the room. She stripped the hawking gauntlet from her hand and cast it down.

"Rather would ye bed with the ladies?" he asked.

"Nay!" she said quickly, and then gave a short laugh. "Ladies, are they? And thou namest me wench."

He could see apprehension concealed beneath her taut mirth. He did what he should not have; he put his hand to her cheek, caressing her skin with the pad of his thumb. "My lady, only for your safekeeping."

"Nonetheless, I take account of all these wenches on thy tongue," she said, with determined irony in the curve of her lips. "Thou wilt getten above thyself."

"Nay," he whispered. "Always at your command, sweet lady."

"Ah, God." A small sound came from her throat. "I'm frightened here. Must we have people and intrigue? The forest was better. I would rather have us sleepen upon the ground than be slain in a soft bed."

"What fantasy is this?" He took her face between his hands. "By hap this man n'is nought as good alloy as the sterling, but what would gain him to slay us?"

A barely perceptible tremor passed through her. For a moment she stared up into his eyes, and then let go a sharp sigh. "Nothing," she said. "Nothing. I am witless."

"I will sleep before the door tonight. Ye are safe." The urge to enfold her in his arms near took possession of him. His body read the same longing in hers: she stood still, yet it was as if she were drawn invisibly toward him, as if she waited for him.

Fine as the edge of a blade, the moment held him in balance. He looked at the fingers of his own hands against her skin, not daring to seek her eyes. The sight of his flesh touching hers seemed illusion, shameless confidence, as if he truly possessed the right. He dropped his hands.

"Will ye given help to me, my lady?" Making effort at a smile, he turned aside. "Be I nought above myseluen to asken it, wench—the buckles."

THIRTEEN

To wear robes, however common the woven stuff and decoration might be in Princess Melanthe's estimation, was a luxury that never palled for Ruck. Seldom enough did he leave off his armor in the usual way of things; in the past fortnight he had slept and lived in it as if he were on the march. But for the moment he did not have to tolerate the seam in the cuir bouilli where the leather corner had pulled loose and curled when it dried, chafing his left armpit with every step, or ignore the pinch of the cuisses' straps behind his thighs, or bide the clumsy weight of chain mail over every inch of his body. He felt light, as if he were made of thistle silk.

His head felt a little light as well as his body, after whiling the afternoon at Henry's table. Ruck had joined the company's meal alone, leaving Princess Melanthe in their chamber. Staring down into his wine cup, he grew warm thinking of her. She had watched the servant bathe him and dress him, sitting cross-legged upon the bed in that way she did—more wench than gentle lady in that pose, he thought pungently— giving keen orders for his care, insisting upon bobbaunce and pomp as if he were some prince. She had even rejected the first robes they brought, sending back for a better selection. Ruck suspected he was wearing Henry's best Christmas houppelande of blue wool and miniver, chosen by her with disdain from among the sparse variety.

The household seemed torn between resentment at such treatment by a stranger's concubine and awe of her manners. Word had clearly gotten back to Henry. The young man who styled himself the lord of Torbec leaned close at the table and murmured that he supposed Ruck's lady had been some time at court. Ruck had merely shrugged. Henry, wearing an avid look, had ventured the conjecture that she was accustomed to the favor of great men. Ruck leaned back with his wine cup and smiled. "Yea, and cost me the Fiend's expense, she does, to keep her as she's wont," he had said, to dampen any covetous ideas.

"Witterly, I can believe it," Henry said, losing his eagerness and turning to his unpolished country maid with a little better cheer.

A bachelor's hall it was, full of hunting dogs and weaponry, with no mistress to foster seemliness or hold the rougher games in check. After a plain and abundant dinner, no one answered the bell for Nones or left to train in the yard. Instead, they spent all the day and into the evening talking of hunt and battle, arguing the merits of Bordeaux steel against the German, wrestling between themselves or, near as ungently, with their willing ladies.

Ruck offered no opinion on the question of the best steel, though they pressed him for his judgment. He listened to them talk. They had the restless violent vigor of youth, and words enough to spend about weapons and fighting, but no more discipline than a band of untaught mongrels; half wolf and half cur, without the sense to know that only because they sat at table in drink and idle discourse about a warrior's concerns, they were not, ergo, great warriors themselves. He might have made much of them, given the time. But he counted them useless for his immediate need, too full of themselves to be trusted.

Arrowslits in the wall or no, Sir Geoffrey of Torbec would make short work of these infant brigands when he returned from Gascony. However that might be, alone and responsible for the princess, Ruck did not care to stir the hornet's nest.

He sat without saying much, though he took care to be a pleasant guest, not to smile too little or drink too lightly or leave too soon. At evensong he rose, standing carefully to surmount the turngiddy feel of the wine in his head, and shamed them into mass only by asking the way to the chapel.

* * *

He came at dusk, at last. Melanthe was furious, mad with waiting. She rose and went forward as the servant lit him into the chamber with a branch of candles. As if she were the fondest of lovers, she put her arms about him, stood on tiptoe, and hissed French in his ear. "There are spying holes."

He looked down at her. In the falling shadows his face was handsome; his breath heavy with wine. If he heeded her warning, or had even heard it, he made no sign. He sighed and stood holding her, his hands clasped around her hips.

"I am old," he said gloomily.

Melanthe commanded the servant with a gesture, dismissing him. She had intended to point out to Sir Ruck the carved masks in the wall, where the peeks were concealed, but she hesitated.

"Old," he said. "Three ten years."

She pushed back. "No more old than I, then," she retorted in French, disengaging herself. "So spare my feelings and say no more of it. Come and sit thee down."

There had been watchers off and on at the holes all the day. She could not hazard speaking to him openly, even in French. And she had never seen him in his cups; she did not know how much wit she might expect of him. Haps it were better to curb any discourse and put him readily to bed.

His fingers twined loosely in hers, he let her lead him. He did not sit, but looked at the bed as if it were the grave of a long-lost faithful hound. He shook his head, pulling his hand from hers and reaching for his sword that lay with his armor. "The door," he said, using English. "For your safe keep, my lady."

"My safe keep!" she responded lightly, as if he japed. "What safer than thy close embrace? Best-loved, come thee all haste to bed."

"To bed?" With a newly aware look, he stopped in the midst of a half turn away. "Lady?"

She tilted her head toward the masks, smiling. He only gazed at her carefully, with the diligent attention of a man mindful of his dazed condition.

"My truelove, my honeycomb—" She put her arms about him again, and leaned until he took a step backward. "Lovedear, sweeting, ne let us not linger in disport and speech as is our wont. I can govern my ardor no longer. I crave a kiss for thy courtesy." Fervently she embraced him, pressing him off balance in the zeal of kisses that she showered over his chin and throat, pushing him step by wavering step until his back met the wall beneath the masks.

Before she could point upward, he grasped her close and hard, making a sudden mockery of her wiles. The abrupt grip stole her balance. His hands spread across her loins, pulling her against his body. With a low, hoarse sound he buried his face in her neck and made a motion of pure lust, straining her to him.

It was no counterfeit passion or monkish restraint. Through the muffling robes, his full member thrust between them. His fingers pressed into her, spreading her buttocks, touching her in a way no man had ever dared touch her. He pushed his knee into the space between her legs, forcing her to open for him as if she were an unwilling whore.

Melanthe drew in a sharp breath as the embrace spun beyond familiar ground. He lifted his head, resting it back against the wall, his eyes closed. But he did not let her go. His hips moved in a pushing stir against hers, without shame, rubbing the firm bulk of his tarse to her belly, even against her privy-most quaint.