“Nonsense. Why wouldn’t there be?”
“Well... I should let Alden tell you, since he’s the owner of the house, and I’m just his... er...”
“Mistress?”
“Girlfriend,” I corrected. “Permanent girlfriend. I think you should know that Alden has been offered a nice chunk of money for the land by the bird conservancy people. It wouldn’t affect you, because you were given the use of the gatehouse for life, and of course, that would be included in the deal.”
“Poppycock,” she said dismissively. “Your young man would not sell Bestwood. He is going to rebuild the hall into one that is not so drafty, and once he has finished, Adams and I will move back into it.”
“Ah. Gotcha,” I said, not wanting to upset her, or ruin the fun she was having watching people fight.
My individual competition in the late afternoon was pretty anticlimactic. I stood in position, Fenice’s bow now feeling like a familiar friend, and loosed twelve arrows, not overly stressed about where they landed. Iwas getting tired, to be honest, and just wanted to curl up with Alden and have him tell me again how much he loved me, all of which contributed to the fact that I came in sixth in the team competition and fourth in individual.
“Well done,” Fenice said, appearing to be pleased despite my lackluster performance. I slid the bow into its bag, zipped it up, and handed it to her for what I realized would be the last time. “I’m proud of you, Mercy. You had a lot of competition, but you shone despite not competing for a few years.”
“Well, I did have three weeks of practice,” I said, accepting her praise nonetheless. “But thank you. I couldn’t have done it without your awesome bow. I don’t suppose you’d be willing—”
“No,” she said firmly, hoisting the bag a little higher. “But if I ever do want to get rid of it, you’ll be the first person I tell.”
“That’s a deal,” I said with a grin. We strolled back toward the melee list, chatting with people who’d come to the classes over the course of the last few weeks. There was a general sense of excitement as everyone began to gear up for the big all-in melee battle.
“Have you heard the good news?”
I jumped at the booming voice that came from behind me, spinning around to see Barry Butcher in armor, his hands and head bare as he strode toward me like he wasn’t wearing at least fifty pounds of plate metal strapped to his person. “Uh... no?”
“Alden has agreed to sell the estate to the conservancy.” Barry beamed, his red hair standing on end.
I still hadn’t forgiven him for shooting at Aldenduring our lesson—because I was fully convinced it had been him, although I couldn’t work out how he had hidden that red arrow without me seeing it—but now was not the time to raise that particular fuss.
“Yes, he told me. I hope the birds will be very happy.”
“Oh, they will be, they will be indeed.” He actually rubbed his hands together. “The board is just thrilled at the thought of designating not just the breeding ground but the whole estate as a sanctuary and learning center. In fact, I am having some plans drawn up—”
“Barry, you’ve got to get your helm on.” A smaller man, dressed in what I imagined was a squire’s garb, trotted up to Barry, a metal helm and mail gloves in his hands. “The all-in is about to start.”
“Wouldn’t want to miss that,” Barry said with a grin at me. “Last man standing gets five hundred quid.”
“I know. And Alden’s going to get it,” I said, filled with bravado on the love of my life’s behalf. “Speaking of him, I should go wish him luck, and give him a favor or something....”
I started to drift away as Barry stuffed the helm on his head, allowing the squire to pull on the mail gloves.
“Mercy!” Lisa raced up, stopping me with her shriek.
“Jeezumcrow, Lisa,” I said, turning to give her a glare. She’d removed her sunglasses, and had, as I’d suspected, red, bloodshot eyes. “What’s the matter now?”
“It’s the men!” she said, waving a hand behind her.
“What men?”
“The investigators!” She grabbed my arm, all but yelling her words. I wondered if she’d been hitting the bottle a bit in an attempt to hair-of-the-dog her hangover. “They’re going down into the cave you said you found.”
“Can you turn down the volume a little?” I asked, frowning.
“They’re going into the cave!” she repeated at an even louder volume.
I shook off her hand, not wanting to deal with a drunken, loud Lisa when there was a sweet, adorable Alden to see off to battle. “So? Look, that’s their job. And if you don’t mind, Alden is about to go—”
“The men,” she bellowed, trailing after me as I dodged the stream of men and women who were entering the list. “The men are going into the cave!”
