A Midsummer's Day by Heather Montford Read Free Book Online

and enjoy her thoughts.  But she couldn’t.  She’d promised Johnny.
    Anyways, the biggest part of her day happened here.  So here she’d stay.  Browsing the shops was an activity that could be done at a leisurely pace, and with her fan fluttering away it wasn’t an unpleasant way to spend some time.
    After fifteen minutes of browsing the shops, she started to scan the tourists.  The perfect one was in the crowd.  She just had to sniff him out.
    The leather maker was one of the few crafters lucky enough to be housed in an enclosed building each season.  It was shaded and cool.  And it was routinely packed with men.  It was the best place to fish.
    The young blond couldn’t have been more than twenty.  He looked listlessly at a display of biking gloves.  He had the look of someone waiting to meet a friend, and they weren’t showing up.
    He would do just fine.
    “My good Sir,” Sammie said loud enough to draw the attention of everyone in the shop.  “My good Sir, art thou a knight?”  She grabbed his arm and squeezed his bicep.  At least this one has one today.
    She’d taken all the senses from his brain, save for the natural manly sense to look her up and down.  And she had only started with him.
    “My good Sir, thou art strong and most muscular.”  She put a hand on the young man’s chest.  His heart fluttered like the wings of a hummingbird.  “Surely thou art a knight of the realm.”
    He opened his mouth to talk.  But all that came out was squeaks and stammers.
    “Come.”  Sammie pulled his arm.  “We must have us a test of skill.”
    The young man put up no resistance.  She led him from the shop and across the sun parched Crossroads to a penned-in field.
    “What sorry, vile canker-blossom’d runt have you brought to me this day, my Lady Halloway?”  The festival’s heckler was ever as vile as he called out to her from the safety of his tomato stained board.  “By my troth, his spindly arm seemest not strong enough to hit a castle from three paces.”
    “Nay, cruel Ungar,” Sammie called back.  “I bring me one who could pass for a grand knight of the realm and wish me to test his skill.”  She nodded to the game master, and the burly man handed the blond three tomatoes.  Free of charge to the Lady’s newest toy.
    “Heed my warning, young runt.”  Ungar turned his attention to the tourist, standing now on the adult’s throwing line.  “‘Tis most every day our Lady Halloway bringest me a young rogue by the magic of her silver tongue.  She playest thee for a fool.”
    The blond turned to Sammie and looked her up and down again.  “She’s hot, so I don’t care.”
    Laughter erupted from her.  It was too funny.  No tourist had ever thrown out such a snappy comeback before.  Especially not to quick witted Ungar.
    The first tomato missed Ungar by mere millimeters, which increased the speed at which the heckler threw out his taunts.  With a kind smile from Sammie, the tourist took a better stance.
    The second tomato landed with a splash just above Ungar’s head.  The red juice washed the heckler’s face, but it could not wash away his stinging barbs.  “Mayhap your most majestic knight wouldst like to throw from the children’s line, my Lady Halloway,” he yelled.
    “Go thee again, my most handsome Sir,” Sammie told her toy.  “Thy victory shalt win thee a kiss.”
    Nearby actors gasped at the Lady Anne’s brashness.  Ungar rolled his eyes.  Tourists around turned their eager attention towards the attraction.
    Fierce determination crossed the blond’s face.  He wound up like the pitchers she saw when she watched baseball with Johnny and Vaughn.
    He threw.
    The tomato flew in a perfect arc.  Ungar’s eyes went wide.  He shrank as much as he could against the board.
    Not one tourist Sammie brought here ever hit Ungar after she issued the promise of a kiss.  Aims usually became far worse, and on more than one occasion the third tomato missed