Bride for a Knight

She joined Roland there, removing her gloves and tucking them into her belt, then holding out her hands to warm them.

She hadn’t intended to speak to Roland, but silence was not her natural state. “It seems we were expected, my lord. Was that why you sent Arnhelm and Verdan on ahead?”

“Yes,” he replied, looking around. “Elrod suggested we stop here. I begin to doubt his recommendation.”

“We can ride on and seek another,” she offered, and despite her fatigue.

He slid her a sidelong glance. “No. You are too tired.”

Mavis didn’t disagree nor did she say anything else. She sat quietly by the fire, waiting for wine and refreshment, while Roland sat just as silently beside her, staring grimly at the fire.

* * *

“He don’t look pleased,” Verdan said to Arnhelm as they entered the taproom along with the rest of the men after seeing to the horses.

They took their places on benches some distance from the hearth. It was colder there, but they didn’t want to get too close to Sir Roland.

Looking around, Arnhelm spoke quietly, so that only his brother could hear. “I’ve stayed in worse, and we could have found worse.”

Verdan nodded his agreement as the innkeeper—a reed of a fellow who’d been only too happy to have such a large company and for even less than the last innkeeper—hurried toward the keg that had caught Arnhelm’s eye the moment he’d walked in.

“Here, Halldie!” the innkeeper called out to a not-so-young serving wench who scurried into the room like a squirrel on the hunt for nuts for the winter. She had a pitcher in her hand and two goblets that she set in front of Lady Mavis and Sir Roland before she faced the innkeeper.

“Bring mugs for these men,” he ordered.

As she hurried to fetch them, the innkeeper addressed Verdan and Arnhelm. “So, where are you from?”

“Castle DeLac,” Arnhelm replied.

“That’s his lordship’s daughter, newly wed,” Verdan added.

“DeLac? You’re a ways from home,” the innkeeper replied as the serving wench returned with a tray full of clay mugs.

“We’re her escort to Dunborough.”

The tray of mugs crashed to the floor. The serving woman’s face flushed and her whole body began to shake, while the innkeeper regarded Roland with a glare of hate. “And who might he be, then?” he demanded.

Before Arnhelm or Verdan could answer, Sir Roland slowly got to his feet. “I am Sir Roland, Lord of Dunborough.”

The innkeeper straightened his slender shoulders. “Your men should have said who you were. You aren’t welcome here, neither you nor your wife nor your men!”

Lady Mavis turned as pale as snow while the stony visage of Sir Roland didn’t alter by so much as a wrinkle.

“Aye! Go! Get out!” the serving wench cried, pointing at the door.

Arnhelm rose and motioned for the other men to join him as he sidled toward the door, his gaze darting from Lady Mavis to Sir Roland, who did not move, to the innkeeper and the serving woman. “I am willing to pay—” Sir Roland began.

“I don’t give a tinker’s damn how much you’ll pay,” the innkeeper exclaimed. “We know the kind of man you are.”

“Aye!” the woman cried again. “Your father and your brother showed us! They stayed here, and played their disgusting games with my sister, a poor simple creature who’d never harm a fly. She’s with the holy sisters now, and likely to stay there for the rest of her life, thanks to them! So get out, all of you! I’d rather starve than take your money! Get out, get out, get out!”

Arnhelm quickly led the men outside. “Get the horses and the wagon,” he ordered, but he held his brother back. “There’s goin’ to be hell to pay now. We should have—”

“Sssh!” Verdan hissed as Sir Roland, grim as death, and Lady Mavis, white to the lips, came out into the yard.

“Let’s go see to the ox,” Arnhelm muttered, but before he could, Sir Roland called out his name.

“Heaven preserve me,” he murmured under his breath. There was no help for it, though. He had to face the wrath of the lord of Dunborough.

“Aye,” Verdan whispered as he followed his brother, ready to share the blame and take the punishment with him, too, whatever it might be, as they faced the irate nobleman.

“You didn’t tell the fellow who I was?”

Arnhelm kept his gaze focused somewhere over Sir Roland’s left shoulder as he answered. “I said I was looking for lodgings for a lord and his lady and their escort, my lord. He didn’t ask me your name or where you was from.”

Arnhelm waited, trembling, for he knew not what—but he didn’t expect Sir Roland to simply say, “Ride on to the next inn and see if there’s room for us. And this time, Arnhelm, make sure you tell them it is Sir Roland of Dunborough who seeks lodging there.”

Nearly fainting with relief, Arnhelm glanced at his brother before replying. “Yes, my lord. And Verdan?”

The nobleman regarded his brother coldly. “What of him?”

“Well, my lord, there might be thieves and outlaws on the road, and a man alone—”

“Take him, then. Just be quick about it.”

“Aye, my lord!” Arnhelm replied, turning smartly and hurrying to the stable with Verdan at his heels.

“That was a close one,” Verdan said after they entered the stable.

“Aye, and we’d best make sure we find a better place,” Arnhelm replied. “If there’s one who’ll take him.”

* * *

When the cortege left the inn yard, it was Mavis who didn’t want to talk. She’d been aware that Roland’s family was not held in high esteem and with good reason, yet the vehemence of the innkeeper and that serving woman’s reaction disturbed her greatly. Now she was glad that Roland rode ahead as she tried to decide what she would do if such a thing happened again.

But before they had gone very far, Roland came back to ride beside her.

Even more unexpectedly, he spoke. “Given my family’s reputation, I should have considered such a thing might happen. I would have spared you that humiliation.”

The admission was more than she’d expected from him. “Elrod was glad to have our custom.”

“We were closer to DeLac.”

That was true, and yet... “It wasn’t your fault, my lord, any more than your father’s reputation is your fault. In time, reputations can be changed, if good deeds replace the bad.”

“Do you truly believe that, my lady?”

“Indeed I do, my lord.”