Claudia Dain by The Fall Read Free Book Online Page A

countenance and the manner of a knight, sinew and muscle and stamina, yet within his piercing blue eyes there had been humor and expectant joy. He was a man who looked for laughter in his life and then made certain that it was found. A man both hard with living and tender with laughing, he seemed to her. An odd sort of man, but then, they were all odd in some way or other.
    Well matched? Perhaps in the techniques of courtly love, but within her was a determined will which would outmatch him easily, as the merlin could outfly the raven.
    With just such assurances ringing through her head, Juliane rode confidently back to the gates of Stanora, Baldric and Morgause following docilely behind her.
    * * *
    "He shall hardly find her docile."
    "I hardly think he expects to."
    The two eyed each other over the soft flames of the center fire in Stanora's magnificent hall. Roger looked on and grinned; it seemed that no matter where one turned in this holding, there were battles aplenty to entertain a knight weary of blood. That these two had been destined to clash he had seen from the start. All her words had been for him and for Ulrich, already snared by the power of Juliane, yet it was to Edward that Avice looked when jousting with other men. It was Edward's eyes she wanted upon her. As they were upon her now.
    With a curt wave of one finger, Avice indicated that the young squire should refill Edward's cup with watered wine. The boy obeyed. Edward bit off half his smirk, leaving the other half tilted upon his face.
    "You have known him long?" Avice said from beyond her fire barrier. They circled each other like two wolves, the fire between them, lighting their faces and their animosity to a rare glow.
    "Long enough," Edward answered.
    "I have, no doubt, known her longer. She is my sister, after all."
    "Yet you are very young, lady, and the years have had no time to creep over your bones. I may have known him for more years than you have been on this earth."
    "May have? Do you not know, then, how long you have known Ulrich of Caen?"
    "He has known me for fifteen years, and I do not know whether to count myself blessed or cursed," Roger cheerfully interjected. No one was speaking to him, but he did not think that any cause for him to remain silent. It had never stopped him before.
    "Why do you care, Lady Avice?" Edward asked just before he drained his cup.
    "Have I not said it? She is my sister," Avice answered.
    "I care, and she is not my sister," Christine said with a quick look at Roger. Roger winked in conspiratorial good humor; it was best to just leap into a conversation one was not a party to. That was his practice and it had not served him ill. Too often.
    "Of course you do," Avice said. "We all care. Now," she said, turning her eyes again upon Edward, "how will Juliane find Ulrich? Tender? Bold?"
    Edward smiled. "How did you find him, lady? Let that answer you. He is not a man to change his cloak upon the hour to match his mood. Ulrich is a man who knows himself and understands others. I ask again. How did you find him, lady?"
    "If anyone should care what I think," Roger said, shrugging at Christine, Marguerite, and small Lunete, which caused them each to giggle, "I think I would not mind having so many cloaks that I could change them upon the hour. What say you to that, Lady Marguerite?"
    "I say," she said thoughtfully, "that anyone with that many cloaks should, in good charity, give them to the poor."
    "You are piety itself, lady," Roger said with a small bow.
    "I think that there is nothing amiss with having many cloaks, particularly if they are all different colors," Christine said. "If I had two brown cloaks, then I would, of course, give one to the poor."
    "Does Ulrich give cloaks to the poor?" Lunete asked.
    Edward smiled and answered her. "I have seen it, aye, and it was a rich green cloak without a single tear. He is most generous, most tender," he said, glancing across the fire at Avice.
    "I would say it is rather bold