For now, though, she was most useful. She would lay the traps that would drive Gawain and the girl apart. Her mischiefs would bedevil them and make peace of mind a stranger. It was likely she would fail, but the attempt would have the effect of making them cling more closely to each other, and that closeness would breed the weakness he needed for his own work.
Euberacon crossed his beautiful courtyard, returning to his tower and his carefully laid plans.
The day was clear as crystal and at least as cold. Rhian was glad Sir Gawain kept the pace brisk, for although the wind stung her cheeks, Thetis’s motion helped keep her warm and distracted her somewhat from the lack of food.
And she needed every distraction she could get. They were still in the wooded country, with the great trees gathering close to the road, waving their branches in salute to the morning’s wind. This was not a well-travelled section of the road, and the ruts and holes had become puddles the size of young lakes. Twice they had to dismount and lead the horses through the trees to avoid burgeoning bogs. Sunlight and shadow shifted, spread and scattered like foam on the sea. The world filled with the rush and creak of the trees’ song, a constant accompaniment to the calls of birds and the hundred nameless noises of the newly wakened forest dwellers, all of them seeking shelter somewhere away from the disturbance made by three horses and two human beings. It took all Rhian’s strength to keep from starting at shadows ahead that might be a dark man with heavy-lidded eyes, or from turning constantly to see behind. Were the only hoofbeats she heard truly from the three horses of their party? Or were there others? Their tracks were plain in the mud and the soft earth along many long stretches where the stones the Romans had laid down were broken and gone. Anyone, certainly any of father’s men, would only have to look to know where they had passed. How much more would a sorcerer be able to do?
It did not help at all that the words from one dark ballad had begun to beat their time through her mind again and again and would not be shifted.
‘Light down, light down, Lady Isobel,’ said he,
‘For we are come to the place where you are to die.’
That all ended well enough for the lady in that tale gave her no comfort. Her mind could not reach that far.
For we are come to the place where you are to die.
‘I see my lady favours a bow.’
Rhian nearly jumped out of her skin. Thetis whickered and broke stride. Rhian had to pat the horse’s neck and prod her to continue before she could look up at Gawain, whose face was all casual inquiry.
‘I do, yes,’ she answered, trying to warm to the idea of polite conversation. What was that in the trees? Was it only a bird?
‘Do you hunt?’ he went on.
‘When I can.’ How many sets of hooves drummed on the road? Mud muffled and confused sound, turning steady drumming into wet and uneven plodding. The way ahead rose steeply. They were leaving the lowlands for the hills, with their dells and valleys and deep folds in the land, where anyone might conceal themselves. She could see next to nothing. She could not hear properly.
‘Lady Rhian.’
Again, Rhian jumped. Again Thetis complained of it and had to be soothed. When she was able to look up at Gawain, his fine face was all sympathy.
‘Take heart, Lady Rhian,’ he said. ‘We are alone on this road.’
Rhian dropped her gaze. ‘I know it, Sir,’ she said. ‘It’s just that…if I…if…’
At her stammering, Gawain gave a small smile and Rhian felt a blush blossom across her entire face. ‘Lady Rhian,’ he said again, as gently as he had before. ‘Last night I said you were under my protection. I will not permit any harm to come to you. If an oath is necessary to make you believe this, then I swear it.’
‘Sir, please believe that I do not doubt your word. But if my father…’
‘Your father is the king’s man and needs must obey the king’s word. Until the king himself appears, that word comes from me, and I say you are going to Camelot.’
Rhian looked away, trying not to scan the budding underbrush for movement. ‘Would ‘twer that simple.’
‘It is that simple, Lady Rhian. It is law.’
He spoke the words so plainly. Did he not understand? Churlishness rose in Rhian and would not be dismissed. Before she could guard her tongue she said, ‘You have slain dragons, my lord. The rest of us know rather less of such legendary battles.’
Sir Gawain stared at her blankly for a moment. ‘God in Heaven,’ he said at last. ‘Is that what they say of me now?’
‘Every year at the feast of Christ’s Mass.’ I’ve told it myself, she added in her mind, but decided not say so aloud.
A spasm crossed the knight’s face, as if he was not certain whether he wished to laugh or curse.
Laughter won out. ‘Well then, my lady, if you can believe I have slain dragons, it should be a matter of no moment to believe I can stand up to your father!’
Much to her surprise, an answering laugh bubbled out of Rhian. It felt surprisingly fine, like a spring morning, and Gawain’s smile had returned in truth, turning his face again to that picture of a man’s beauty she had seen so briefly before, even with the dark stubble dusting his chin.
After a moment, his face grew thoughtful again, studying hers. Rhian fixed her gaze on the rising narrow way ahead, on the shifting patterns of light and shadow from the branches waving in the spring wind. Thetis did not like uneven ground and was growing nervy, so that Rhian had to concentrate on keeping her seat and on guiding her mare, which was just as well. She needed to think of something else but Sir Gawain’s eyes studying her so closely.
‘It is good to see you smile, Lady Rhian.’
It is good to believe I will smile again, thought Rhian, but that was hardly a thing she could say to this man. She concentrated instead on keeping the reins loose in her fingers. It would not do to have Thetis betraying her moods.
Perhaps in my next flight into the wilderness I should go on foot.
Gawain was not content to let her keep her peace, however. ‘May I ask your thought?’
‘Oh, it is nothing of importance, Sir.’
At this, Gawain reined his palfrey back, bringing himself as close beside Thetis as the broken road permitted so that he could look her directly in the eyes. ‘Lady, you asked this morning that I speak plainly to you. Grant me the courtesy of doing the same for me. We are not, after all, in your father’s hall, nor my uncle’s. Out here, I am only a knight errant and you are the daughter of a liegeman. Shall we then be Gawain and Rhian, you and I?’
Rhian felt her tongue freeze to the roof of her mouth. It was too presumptuous. She was not sure she could do such a thing. Yet, at the same time, she longed to.
Mother Mary, I’m becoming a stuttering fool. ‘I will try.’
‘I can ask for nothing better.’ He was smiling again, that smile that lit and filled the world and suffocated sense and senses. Part of Rhian knew she had better take hold of those same senses, or she was in severe danger of making far worse than a fool out of herself, be this man ever so refined and politic in his manner. Part of her did not care and only wanted to see him smile again. During the few heartbeats she was basking in the light of that smile, she no longer had to be