Medieval 03 - Enchanted

was civil and no more. He would
have preferred that no strangers come to Blackthorne Keep until
Dominic had more—and better-trained—knights.
    “Geoffrey the Fair, vassal to Baron
Deguerre,” said the big knight. His smile was apparent across
the width of the bridge. “Is this indeed the fabled
Blackthorne Keep, home to the Glendruid Wolf?”
    The admiration in Geoffrey’s voice would have
disarmed most men. Sven disregarded the implied compliment, for
flattery was one of a spy’s most useful tools.
    Simon discounted it because he truly disliked
Geoffrey. Nor could Simon have said why. He simply knew his
distaste as surely as he knew that Autumn was no longer purring
against his neck.
    “Aye. This is Blackthorne Keep and I am
Simon, brother to Dominic le Sabre. The man with me is Sven, a
valued knight.”
    “I am honored to greet you,” Geoffrey
said.
    “Is your lord far behind?” Simon
asked.
    “I’m not certain.”
    “How many are in his entourage? We will have
to let the kitchen, falconer and gamekeeper know how many more we
must feed.”
    “I don’t know that, either, sir,”
Geoffrey said.
    As he spoke, his hand rubbed across his face in a
gesture of bone-deep weariness.
    “Forgive my lack of information,”

Geoffrey said heavily. “I was one of Lady Ariane’s
escort from Normandy. The sickness…”
    “We heard,” Simon said.
    “I have but lately come back to
myself,” Geoffrey admitted. “I have ridden hard to
reach this keep, twice getting lost.”
    “Indeed?”
    “Aye. I came upon a peddler four days’

ride north, or perhaps it was five or six and not true north at
all…”
    Sven and Simon exchanged a look.
    Geoffrey shook his head as though to clear it.
“I am sorry, sirs. That foul illness laid me low. Even now I
am weak. ’Tis relieved I am to find the shelter of
Blackthorne Keep.”
    Sven and Simon exchanged another look.
    “Is the Lady Ariane here?” Geoffrey
asked when Simon remained silent. “She will vouch for my
honor. We are old, old friends.”
    The fleeting smile on Geoffrey’s mouth at the
word friends did nothing to increase
Simon’s charitable feelings toward the unwelcome knight.
    On the other hand, it would be unwise to offend
Baron Deguerre by refusing hospitality to one of his knights, and
an ailing knight at that. Much as Simon wanted to turn his back on
Deguerre’s vassal, nobody knew Dominic’s vulnerability
better than Simon.
    ’ Tis why I offered myself as a replacement for Duncan at the
marriage altar .
    Necessity, not
desire .
    But Simon knew he was telling only half of the
truth to himself, and the lesser half at that. Even when Ariane was
betrothed to Duncan, Simon had wanted her until he awoke sweating,
fully aroused, teeth clenched against a groan of need.
    He still did.
    Abruptly, Simon signaled for the gate to be
opened.
    “Thank you, gracious knight,” Geoffrey
said, urging his stallion forward. “The baron will be pleased
by your hospitality, for I am much loved by him.”
    As the stallion’s metal shoes clopped
hollowly onto wood, Sven flicked Simon briefly on the hand in a
silent signal left over from the times when they had hunted
Saracens through the night.
    “Look,” Sven said in a low voice.
“Out beyond the millrace.”
    Simon looked, shaded his eyes against the dying
sun, and picked out the form of a woman walking toward the keep on
a seldom-used path. He needed no more than a glimpse of the
graceful, flowing stride to recognize his wife.
    “Ariane,” Simon said beneath his
breath.
    “The herb gardens lie in another
direction.”
    “Aye.”
    A groom rushed forward to take Geoffrey’s
stallion. Geoffrey ignored him, for he had just spotted the figure
drawing closer to the drawbridge.
    “Ariane!” Geoffrey said, anticipation
in every syllable. “At last!”
    He dismounted in an athletic rush, smiling like a
child who has unexpectedly been given a cream cake to eat. Only
when he saw Simon’s bleak eyes did Geoffrey seem to remember
that Ariane was now wed.
    To Simon.
    “Forgive me,” Geoffrey said, wiping
away his smile. “I must make a confession to you. In truth,
Ariane is why I came to Blackthorne first rather than trying to
find the baron. I have missed her the way I miss the sun in
winter.”
    “Indeed,” Simon said softly. “Why
did you not go to Stone Ring Keep, then? ’Tis where Duncan of
Maxwell resides.”
    Geoffrey looked blank for an instant.
    “But…er…” Geoffrey fumbled
for words,