Once a Knight by Christina Dodd Read Free Book Online Page B

knowing that in this possibly hazardous situation he might have use for their strength and their stout poles. Each tugged on their forelocks and muttered greetings, and he counted that brief communication as a success. Then he rode to join Alisoun and said, “My lady, your men-at-arms are not knights, so why do you let them cavort in knight’s armor?”
    She cast him a troubled glance. “They do not carry the armor well, I know, but my chief knight, Sir Walter, remained behind at George’s Cross as a safeguard against whatever trouble might be brewing. Two of my mercenary knights, John of Beauchamp and Lothair of Hohenstaufen, accompanied me to Lancaster, but they spoke of receiving a better offer while in the town.” She lowered her voice. “Apparently, they accepted it, for they failed to return to the inn two days ago, and they took six of my men-at-arms with them.”
    â€œThat’s what you get for hiring a German mercenary. They’re an unsavory lot, good for nothing but slitting your throat while you sleep.” He ran a finger across his neck as an illustration. “But…John of Beauchamp? I’ve fought alongside John. He’s a good man. I can’t believe he’d abandon his pledged lady until he’d finished his obligation.”
    â€œYes.” She turned in the saddle and examined the carts as if she could protect them with her gaze. “So I thought, also.”
    â€œDid you—” He hesitated. Did she search for John? How did a lady search for a mercenary? Visit the alehouses and lift every drunkard’s head? She’d done that with him, but—
    â€œI sent Ivo to look for John and my men, but he heard a tale that they had all ridden for Wolston with their new master.” She shrugged, an elegant lift of the shoulders. “It’s difficult, sometimes, for a mercenary to take orders from a woman.”
    â€œAye.” David had sympathy for that, and he scratched the half-grown beard that prickled his skin. “So you dressed Ivo and Gunnewate up in armor. Where did you get the armor?”
    â€œOne suit is mine for one of the squires in my household. He’ll soon earn his spurs, and I outfit all the boys I have fostered.”
    Impressed in spite of himself, David said, “That’s good of you.”
    â€œThe other…Ivo found it.” She watched the road intently. “It’s John’s.”
    Pulling Louis in front of Alisoun’s horse, David grabbed the reins close to the palfrey’s mouth. They halted in the middle of the track, and he said, “There’s foul play.”
    â€œSo I suspect.”
    â€œJohn would never leave his armor. Do you know what a full suit costs?”
    â€œI just said I had purchased one.”
    â€œIt’s too expensive for a landless knight to abandon.”
    â€œMuch too expensive.”
    The serenity of her expression never changed. Her demeanor never changed. She had all the vivacity of a stone statue on Ripon Cathedral, and he swore long and eloquently. “Don’t you care that a good man in your employ has probably been murdered?”
    â€œâ€™Tis a misdeed I deplore deeply, and I lit candles in his name, praying for his safe return and his soul, should it have departed this earth.” She controlled her horse easily, her gloved hands light on the reins. “What else would you have me do?”
    He didn’t say it, but he thought, Wail a little. Wipe a tear from your eye. At the least, profess terror for your own safety . But that was stupid, and he knew it. He abhorred women who behaved so melodramatically, and he didn’t want to be saddled with one now.
    â€œThe carts will be on us if we don’t proceed,” Alisoun reminded him.
    He released her horse and they moved along the road. It wound upward now, going deeper into the wilds of Northumbria. Englishmen spoke of this area—the looming Cumbrian Mountains,