Masters of Medieval Romance: Series Starters Volume II

by Kathryn Le Veque

  “Damascus.”

  Lyssa brow furrowed. “W-Where is that?”

  Zayin smiled faintly at the woman’s curiosity. “Very far away, my lady. Very, very far.”

  Lyssa sensed that he was somehow amused by her question. “I-Is it near France?”

  “You know where France is?”

  She nodded. “I-I was born there.”

  “It is not near France. It takes many months to travel from Damascus to England.”

  Lyssa pondered this faraway land, so far that it took months to reach it. “W-What is it like there?” she asked. “And why did you come to England if it is so far away?”

  Zayin laughed softly. “I have often wondered that myself,” he said. “But for a debt to Sir Garret, I would still be in my land. Because you have asked me, I shall tell you – it is a place of great warmth and great beauty. There are golden sands upon which rests green islands of trees, where the waters run cool and pure. It is the land where Christ walked.”

  Lyssa was greatly interested in this marvelous place. “J-Jerusalem?”

  He nodded. “It is nearer to Jerusalem, yes.”

  Lyssa was quite fascinated by all of it. She looked at Garret, who was smiling at her over the rim of his cup. “I-I think that is wonderful,” she said. “D-Did you go to Damascus when you were on crusade with the king?”

  Garret lifted an eyebrow. “How do you know I went on crusade?”

  Lyssa grinned. “J-Juliana de Nerra told me,” she said. “S-She said that you were a great knight, even the greatest who has ever lived. S-She said you went on crusade with the king.”

  Garret knew who Lady Juliana was, the sister of Gavin, a man who would quite possibly be looking for him by now. He’d left the grounds of Westminster without telling a soul, mostly because he didn’t want anyone asking him any questions. He didn’t want to have to explain that he was taking a detour escorting a lovely young lady home, but he’d brought Zayin to ensure nothing unseemly – or perceived unseemly – happened. In truth, he’d only planned to spend an hour with the lady at the most, but they’d ended up across the river and enjoying entertainment in a rather seedy tavern.

  And he was enjoying it immensely.

  He wasn’t even sure why they’d ended up there, only that they had. The woman had seemed so disappointed at missing out on a grand party that he’d wanted to show her a good time before taking her to The Wix for the night. But, for propriety’s sake as well as the sake of his duties, he knew he needed to return her sooner rather than later. He was loath to do it, but he knew he had to. Besides… he knew he had to return her before the Colchester party returned from Westminster, if only to protect the lady’s reputation. If what his brother said was true, she was already being watched enough.

  Not that he blamed the men doing the watching.

  “Lady Juliana is correct,” he said belatedly. “I am the greatest knight who has ever lived.”

  He said it with such pomp that Lyssa burst out laughing. She looked at Zayin. “I-Is that true?”

  Zayin nodded. “Next to me, he most certainly is.”

  Garret rolled his eyes and downed the contents of his cup, setting the vessel back onto the table. “You have delusions of grandeur, my friend,” he said. “I shall, therefore, take a vote. My lady, you must decide – who is greater. Me or that foolish whelp of a man sitting next to you?”

  As Lyssa giggled, Zayin defended himself. “I am descended from kings,” he said. “You, my lord, are not.”

  “That does not make you great. In fact, it probably makes you pampered and silly.”

  “Shall we go out to the street and let our weapons decide just how silly I am?”

  They were jesting with each other, as egotistical men do, but Lyssa held up her hands. “T-There will be no fighting on this night,” she insisted, looking between the two of them. “I-I wish to remember this evening as one of the most wonderful times I have ever had. I-I would be very unhappy if it ended in bloodshed.”

  Garret snorted. “I know what would happen. We would bleed to death right in front of you because you would be too ill at the sight of blood to help us.”

  “I-I would not help you, anyway, if you were to fight so foolishly.”

  “Is that so?”

  Her eyes glimmered mischievously. “Y-You would deserve your fate.”

  Garret’s eyes narrowed at her in a threatening manner but he couldn’t maintain the act. He broke down in a grin.

  “You are a cruel woman,” he said. “But you are more than likely right. Still, you would, at least, help me, would you not?”

  She shook her head. “Y-You least of all.”

  Zayin laughed loudly at her reply as Garret could see the conversation was turning against him. Truth be told, he wasn’t upset about it in the least. The lady was charming, humorous, and unafraid to bite back.

  He rather liked her bite.

  “Then I am deeply insulted,” he said, although he didn’t mean a word of it. “But I cannot challenge you at the moment because we have stayed longer than I had intended. As much as I do not want to end this evening, I must return you to The Wix before the Colchester party returns. It would not do for you to return well after they did when I was supposed to take you directly to The Wix from Westminster in the first place.”

  Lyssa’s face fell. “W-We must leave?”

  Garret nodded, pulling out a couple of coins from his purse and tossing them onto the table. He stood up, pulling Lyssa up with him. “Unfortunately, we must,” he said. “But I do hope you have enjoyed your evening. Mayhap it was not the grand party at Westminster, but I hope you were entertained nonetheless.”

  Lyssa was about to reply when the two fools suddenly raced by and one of them grabbed her away from Garret. He took her in his arms and began to dance across the floor, bumping into customers, as he sang loudly to her.

  Women, women, who loves women?

  Some be lewd!

  Some be shrewd!

  To bare a man’s purse or his bollocks!

  The crowd roared with laughter at the bawdy song and Garret immediately moved to follow so he could reclaim the lady, but Zayin reached out and stopped him.

  “Nay,” he insisted quietly. “She is still laughing. Unless she cries for help, do not rush in to separate her from the fool.”

  Garret looked at Zayin as if the man had lost his mind. “Did you hear the words to that song?”

  Zayin nodded patiently. “But I am not entirely sure she did,” he said. “She seems to be having a marvelous time and if you rush in now, you risk embarrassing her. And then you will have to explain why you did it.”

  “The words to the song?”

  “Precisely.”

  Garret hadn’t thought of it that way and he came to a halt, refraining from charging any further. Still, he was watching Lyssa like a hawk as the fool twirled her around. Zayin was right; she was laughing. She was having the time of her life. The fool twirled her so much that, with the drink she’d imbibed that evening, she nearly fell to the floor but the fool was fast enough to right her. Then, he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her over to the table in the center of the common room where he and his cohort had been performing their act. Lifting Lyssa by the waist, he plopped her on the tabletop.

  “A feat, a feat!” he cried. “We will have a feat!”

  Garret wasn’t entirely sure what that meant and his protective instincts were on high alert. He didn’t like those men touching Lyssa, even if it was relatively benign, and he most certainly didn’t like the fact that she was out of arm’s reach. He wanted her right next to him where he could control the situation.

  Still… it occurred to him over that Lyssa didn’t belong to him in any way. She was not his wife or his betrothed. He was nothing to her and she to him so, in a sense, he had no more right to her than the fools who were now putting a stick atop her head and taking bets from the audience on how long they could balance a flat piece of earthenware on the stick before it fell
off.

  It was all very disturbing to him.

  “Will you tell me who this woman is, Salibi?” Zayin asked him quietly. “You only introduced us back at Westminster but you did not tell me who she is.”

  The soft question filled the air between them. Garret’s gaze was riveted to Lyssa as she tried not to giggle while the fools balanced things on her head.

  “What do you mean?” he asked evasively.

  Zayin knew that Garret was trying to avoid the question. He was looking at Garret as Garret looked at Lyssa. Zayin know the man for five years and had never seen such an expression on his face. There was such… interest there. He had no other way to describe the expression and he’d been dying to ask him who the lady was ever since they left Westminster but they’d had no time alone. He wasn’t going to ask in front of the lady. But now, he was asking.

  “I mean to know who she is to you,” Zayin said. “Why is she with you? Where does she come from?”

  Garret watched as the fools began to put coins on top of the flat earthenware that Lyssa was balancing on her head. “She is a lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Colchester,” he said. “John and Hawisa had evidently set their sights on her at the party tonight and I volunteered to return her to Colchester’s townhome.”

  “But you did not return her to the townhome.”

  Garret shook his head, watching Lyssa as she began to laugh and the fools roared with humor because the stick on her head was wavering. “Nay,” he said quietly. “I did not. She was saddened because she was forced to leave the party so I thought… God’s Bones, I do not know what I thought other than I felt some pity for her. I thought to bring her here for a meal and entertainment before taking her back to Colchester’s.”

  “But why?”

  “Because it seemed to me that she needed it.”

  Zayin was trying to decipher what, exactly, he was being told. The Garret de Moray he knew didn’t give much attention to women, so he found it very surprising that Garret should give this young woman his focus. Not that he blamed him; even with the catch in her speech, she was quite lovely as far as English women went. She seemed kind and curious, too, and had a gentleness about her that suggested manners and graciousness. But their odd departure from Westminster and now finding themselves at a tavern with a rather vulgar reputation had Zayin scratching his head about the entire situation. Innocent as it seemed, this wasn’t the Garret he knew and he was understandably confused.

  But… he didn’t press. If Garret wanted him to know anything more, then he would tell him, so Zayin simply kept his mouth shut as Garret continued to behave strangely where the woman was concerned. He seemed so… possessive of her. Yet, he didn’t move from Garret’s side in case the man should feel as if the woman was threatened somehow. But that all came to a blissful end when the plate on her head fell and the fools ran around collecting the bets from the audience.

  Garret took that opportunity to remove Lyssa from the table and quickly lead her away from the frivolities. Even as they quit the tavern, they could hear the fools calling after them and the audience booing because the pretty woman was being taken away. But Garret ignored the unhappiness of the patrons; they weren’t his concern. He simply kept walking until they were out in the moist evening.

  “G-God’s Bones!” Lyssa gasped as she fanned her face furiously with her hand. “T-That was one of the more lively places I have ever been. W-What fun it was!”

  She was slightly drunk, still giggling, as Garret took her by the arm and began leading her across the road to the livery where they’d left the horses.

  “You were afraid you had missed the party at Westminster,” Garret said as he glanced at her. “I took you to a better party.”

  She grinned at him, beaming, and he couldn’t help but grin in return. Something about her smile made him feel warm and giddy all over.

  “N-No one at Westminster could have had a better time than I,” she said. “T-Thank you, my lord. I do not know when I have had more fun.”

  “It was my pleasure, my lady.”

  “I-I cannot wait to tell Juliana and the other ladies. T-They will be quite jealous!”

  Garret shook his head. “You had better not tell them. I was supposed to take you back to The Wix immediately, yet I did not. I would wager to say that the duchess would not approve of what we have done this evening so, for your own sake, I would suggest you not tell anyone. It will have to be your secret.”

  Lyssa lost some of her giddiness. “B-But why would she not approve?” she asked. “W-We have not traveled alone; we have traveled with Sir Zayin. N-Nothing we have done has been untoward and you are a man with a reputation beyond reproach.”

  Garret paused at the entrance to the livery as Zayin went in to retrieve the horses. He looked at Lyssa, seeing that she truly didn’t grasp the fact that their little adventure on this night might not be viewed as innocently as she seemed to think. Certainly, he never intended to compromise the woman in any way, but he didn’t think their activity would be viewed as completely innocent by others.

  He knew the way men thought.

  “It would not reflect poorly on me, but others might gossip about the fact that you allowed me to take you to a tavern near the waterfront,” he said. “You must think on it from their perspective, my lady. You permitted a man you did not know to take you to a tavern. It would be best if you simply kept the event to yourself.”

  Lyssa listened to his explanation and although part of her understood what he was saying, another part of her understood that, perhaps, he did not want others to know he had been in her company. The woman with the catch in her speech. Of course, he would be ashamed; any man would. It reminded her that this entire event had been based on his pity towards her. Abruptly, she lowered her head.

  “I-I understand, my lord,” she said. “I-I will not tell anyone.”

  There was that tone in her voice again, as if he’d upset her. The third time in as many hours. The first two times, he hadn’t pressed her very much for an answer, but now he was going to. He shouldn’t have cared. Truthfully, he should have simply accepted the fact that she was an emotional female just like the rest, one given to irrational whims and moods, but something told him that she wasn’t like that. She seemed genuine and open and honest.

  It was something that he liked about her, this wide-open fascination with the world and the trusting look in her eye. He had watched her in the tavern, her joy in life and her humor, and he knew this wouldn’t be the last time he saw her. He wanted to see her again and again, and in time, perhaps something even more than that. Perhaps this was the woman he would finally take unto himself and call her wife. But before that could happen, in the infancy of whatever he was feeling for her, they had to get a few things straight. With that in mind, he reached out and grasped her arm.

  “Look at me,” he said quietly.

  Lyssa kept her red-cheeked face down. “I-I-I do not….”

  He cut her off, though it was gently done. “Lyssa, look at me.”

  Her head shot up, astonished that he had used her name so boldly. When he saw her surprise, he lifted his eyebrows. “So you do not like it when I call you by your name?”

  Lyssa’s expression was uncertain. “I-I-It is forward of you.”

  Her stammering was growing worse, perhaps because she was upset. Perhaps it was even because she was afraid. Whatever the case, he didn’t like it when she was nervous. He wanted to see that happy young woman, always, and especially when it pertained to him.

  “Aye, it is,” he said quietly. “But in case you have not realized it, I have been rather bold towards you all evening. May I call you by your name in private, when it is just the two of us?”

  She nodded unsteadily. “I-If you wish.”

  “I do. And I wish that you should call me Garret.”

  Her puzzled expression grew. “I-If that is your wish, I shall.”

  “Excellent. Now, Lyssa, I wish to ask you a question.”

  Sh
e eyed him. “I-I will answer if I can.”

  “Do I make you nervous?”

  Lyssa looked at him for a moment. “S-Sometimes,” she said honestly.

  A smile played on his lips. “Thank you for being truthful,” he said quietly. “If I have made you nervous, that has never been my intention. I am sorry if you have felt that way. To be completely honest… you make me a little nervous, too.”

  Now, she was surprised. “I-I do?”

  He nodded. “There is something I wish to ask you and I am afraid I will not like your answer.”

  “W-What is the question?”

  His smile grew, but it was forced. Garret realized that he really was nervous as he looked at her. “Would you be agreeable if I were to call upon you at The Wix?”

  She stared at him, dumbly. “C-Call upon me for what?”

  He snorted. “Because I would like to see you again.”

  “W-What do you wish to see?”

  “God’s Bones, woman, do I have to make myself plain? I wish to call upon you. To bask in your beauty, to bring you gifts. Now do you understand?”

  She did. He could tell when her eyes widened as if she could hardly believe what she’d just heard. “M-Me?” she gasped.

  “You.”

  Her mouth popped open. “W-Why would you want to do such a thing?”

  He couldn’t tell if she was pleased or not. “Because I find you enchanting. Because I would like to spend time with you.”

  As he watched, her eyes suddenly pooled with tears and she blinked rapidly, chasing them away. He grew concerned.

  “Does this distress you?” he asked. “I am sorry if I have offended you. That was not my intention. If what I have said is of no interest to you, then you only need tell me. I will not trouble you further.”

  Lyssa, in truth, could hardly believe any of it. She felt entirely foolish for her reaction, but not so foolish considering the lack of confidence she had in herself. She put a hand to her mouth, trying to stave off her astonishment as she struggled to grasp that a man – any man – should look to her as a romantic prospect. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine such a thing would be possible, and most certainly not from someone like Garret de Moray.