A Knight for Love by A.M. Westerling Read Free Book Online

inexplicably curvaceous bottom had caused such an insistent surge to his loins that he had to stand with the intensity of it.
    H e shook his head. Apparently, the fates had simply been toying with him when he had crossed paths with Alan.
     

 
     
    Chapter Four
     
     
    Warin had dressed and sat on one of the stools briskly toweling his hair when Ada walked in. The partly filled tub still stood in the center of the room, surrounded by damp linens strewn about as if caught by the wind. The soiled water had cooled and judging by the ring of dirty soap scum lining the inside, it truly wasn’t fit for another to wash in. Alan had been right to deny his offer.
    He cocked an eyebrow at Ada, pointing to the tub with the intention of emptying it but she waved him off.
    “Later,” she said. “I’ll tend to that later.” She dragged it closer to the door. “But we will move it out of our way.”
    He shrugged and sat down at the table. He tos sed the final linen in the direction of the tub before running his fingers through his hair. It needed combing but for now he would leave it because what he desired most at the moment was to talk, to tap Ada’s wisdom and drink of her calm and soothing manner, to bare his soul in her non-judgmental presence.
    He wasted no time, not even waiting for her to sit down before the first words erupted from his mouth.
    “Ada, what do you think of young Alan?”
    “How so?” she asked warily , grey eyes narrowed.
    He leaned on the table, his fingers steepled.
    “I’m curious. I don’t know what to do with him.” What he really wanted was her reassurance that he wasn’t wrong in his assessment about the weakness of the lad. In fairness to Alan, he was loath to voice his concerns but if Ada agreed with him, then he would act. Somehow.
    She nodded her head in understanding.
    “To all appearances, a fine young lad, only….” Ada’s voice trailed away as she sought the words to voice her suspicions.
    “Aye?” prompted Warin, watching her face carefully. The gloom in the hut made it difficult to see and she stirred the coals prior to seating herself at the table.
    The flames began to flicker, illuminating the hut’s interior, splashing a golden glow over Ada’s face that tinted her features becomingly. For one in her later years, she was still a handsome woman.
    “He is slight of build and does not have strength for physical labor. I feel he’s a good soul but it will be difficult for him to find a place in this hard world.” Ada wrinkled her nose and pursed her lips. “There is aught strange about the lad, almost as if….”
    Again, her voice trailed away. Her index finger, nail broken and dirty, tapped the table with such lightness and cadence that to Warin it sounded like a faerie hammer.
    “Aye, aye, Ada, let me hear your words.” Warin could barely conceal his irritation. Ada normally spoke her mind and always came to the point.
    She shrugged. “I fear Alan is no lad. Alan is a young woman. It ’s there, in the bones, in the mannerisms, in the voice, if you but care to look past the unlikely façade of ragged tunic and soiled cap.”
    Appalled, Warin placed his hands on the table and leaned back. “Surely you jest.”
    Ada shook her head. “ It’s no jest.”
    He wagged his head emphatically in denial, disbelief etched on his face. “Alan? A young lady? It can ’t be, Ada, for what young lady would find herself alone and far from home on a barely traveled path?”
    “Did you ask?” It was a direct, simple question, so typical of Ada.
    “Of course.” He made his rebuttal brusque, implying that the question just posed to him was nonsensical. “Alan recounted the entire tale to me.”
    “And?” She prodded him further.
    “He followed his brother to the Crusades,” he responded weakly, trying to remember more of what he had been told. “They were robbed and left with nothing and were returning to England on foot.”
    She said nothing, just smiled knowingly at