Quiet, but intent, he studied her. ‘What things? What things would you choose to see?’
She looked away, abashed by the perception of the question. If she were as tall and strong as he and free to choose her life, she would walk from here to Compostela to see the shrine of St James and from there to Rome, where the ancient stones of the Romans still stood. And beyond that lay Castile or Jerusalem or even Alexandria...
But those were dreams for someone else, not for a lame girl.
‘I go where my lady chooses.’ And was fortunate to do so. Fool. She had let the man turn questions on her and then been foolish enough to answer them.
She bowed her head over her needlework, grateful that the music and chatter had masked their words. She must turn the talk back to him before she said something else to regret. Dancers gathered before them on the floor as the minstrels lifted pipes and bows.
Turning back to Nicholas, she gave him her broadest smile. ‘Do you dance?’
* * *
Nicholas looked at Anne, uncertain what to say. Anything he said would be an insult to a woman who would never skip gaily through a circle dance.
‘There was little dancing in the midst of battle.’ It was the truth.
She looked up from her stitching and smiled, as if she realised the foolishness of the question. ‘Was there no respite from the fighting?’
‘The King made time for hawking.’ Which meant Nicholas had arranged for the care and feeding of the King’s favourite birds as well as of men.
‘Ah.’ She had a way of looking from her stitching to his face and back in a natural rhythm. ‘I have ridden after the falcons. Once. Or twice.’
She could ride, then. He had wondered.
His surprise must have shown plain on his face, for she answered it. ‘The falconer does most of the work.’
‘I did not think—’
‘I know what you thought.’ Her needle paused.
He, a man who cloaked his feelings from royalty, had allowed this woman to see his very thoughts. Dangerous.
Then, as if she had seen his dismay, she touched his hand with fingers straight and slender, some mad form of amends for her leg.
‘Forgive me,’ she said. ‘Sometimes I try to ignore that which is perfectly obvious. You did nothing wrong.’
He wondered whether she had confessed so much to others. ‘You take your...situation...with remarkable calm.’
‘I have no choice. What else can I do?’
No choice. He shuddered. He had lived his life making sure that there were always choices, options, other paths to follow.
‘You could rail against your fate and insist on special treatment.’ He knew able-bodied warriors more peevish with less reason.
‘That would change nothing.’
He had no answer to that and the silence between them grew until, as the music ended, he realised her fingers still rested on the back of his hand. She saw them at the same moment and pulled them away, as if from a fire.
‘Will you join tomorrow’s hunt?’ Thoughtless words to cover the awkward moment. It was a deer hunt, demanding in a way that hawking was not.
And he was looking forward to it. He would ride as long and hard and fast as the running stag they chased. He would outride all the frustration of being stuck here because the King was overcautious.
Her fingers were busy with her needle again, the rhythm restored. ‘They have little patience with me on the hunt.’
‘Women ride.’ Some of them. ‘And there is no shame in lagging behind.’
‘Not as far behind as I do.’
Was her smile as wistful as he imagined? He supposed it would be a kind of death, to be left behind, trapped, while the rest of the court galloped off on a sunny summer day.
‘Come,’ he said, abruptly. He had seen slaughter enough in France. No need to witness the death of every deer. ‘I’ll ride beside you.’
Her needle shook, but her stitches did not pause. ‘Pity for the cripple?’
He grabbed her wrist, stopping her needle and forcing her to look at him. ‘No.’
She met his eyes, questioning, and he wondered what she saw there. In truth, he did not know why he had offered and more words would only make it worse.
Finally, she smiled, a slow, lovely thing. ‘I would like that.’
‘Tomorrow, then.’ He stood abruptly and with a curt bow escaped.
As quickly as that, he had committed himself to spend time with a woman who would do nothing but drag him down.
The next morning, regretting his impulse of the previous day, Nicholas joined the rest as they gathered outside the lodge, in preparation for the hunt.
He hoped that a page would appear, telling him Anne had changed her mind, leaving him free to ride off his restlessness.
Yet there she was, already on horseback, waiting for him at the edge of the chaos surrounding the assembly. Dogs who would track the deer sniffed the air, wondering which scent they would follow. Dogs ready to chase the deer chased their tails instead, held back by their handlers until the quarry was sighted. In the suit of green he favoured for the hunt, the King conferred with his huntsman, considering their plan.
And Anne, seated atop a bay courser, looked out over the scene as if to memorise it.
If he asked her outright whether she could manage a day on horseback, would she back down? Without opening his mouth, he knew the answer. Still, he might give her the opportunity...
‘He uses the dogs,’ Nicholas said, glancing at the King while laying a comforting palm on the neck of Anne’s horse. Dogs meant a longer hunt. Gruelling and gruesome. He looked up at Anne, hoping for a reprieve.
She nodded. ‘They’ve located a hart of ten.’ A stag with ten points on his antlers. ‘He’ll be a worthy opponent.’
No wonder the King was smiling.
‘It will be a long day, then.’ They would be hunting par force, as the King preferred, chasing the beast into exhaustion. The work had begun the day before for the huntsman and continued with a discussion over a morning meal that Nicholas had decided to miss.
Now, they had to set the dogs along the path and have the scent hound find the beast again. When they did, the hounds would give chase. Finally, it might be hours later, when the beast was at bay, the King would get the honour of making the kill and unmaking the animal, cutting it carefully to pieces and giving the dogs their taste as a reward. All this could keep them on horseback until near dark.
‘So my lady hopes.’ She nodded toward the Prince and his intended, mounted and waiting side by side. Lady Joan raised a hand and waved to Anne. ‘Without war, the men grow restless.’ She looked down at him. ‘Don’t you?’
She said it as if she knew how eager he was to join the chase.
‘Yes.’ The word sounded churlish.
‘Then it is good that we hunt today.’ She spoke with a smile and without any indication that she was ready to get off her horse.
He sighed and mounted the hunting horse he had borrowed from the King’s stable. The day might be longer than even he expected.
King Edward gave the signal and they moved out, slowly at first,