“Because you are blaming me for everything from le Kerque’s damaged pride to your ladies’ undisciplined behavior.”
She knew that, but it was difficult to admit it. “I simply said that your presence was disruptive.”
“And you live in denial,” Douglas said. “The only thing disruptive about this place is you, because you throw a tantrum when things are not to your liking.”
Her brow furrowed and she was about to lash out at him when she suddenly turned away, taking in a deep breath to keep what was left of her dwindling composure.
“No one has spoken like that to me in years,” she muttered. “You remind me a great deal of my brother, Sir Douglas. He was the only one brave enough to tell me the truth about things, and I trusted him, but in this case, I do not know you and I do not trust you. Your words are disrespectful to say the least.”
Douglas knew he’d overstepped, but she had pushed him in that direction. He was tired of being ignored by her, andwhen she wasn’t ignoring him, she was treating him like an imposition.
“Mayhap they are, my lady,” he said. “But you have been showing me great disrespect since the moment I arrived. You let your ladies treat me with the same disrespect, yet you expect me to show you honor and obedience. How can I when you have set the precedence on how we are to treat one another?”
She turned to look at him then. “Is that what I have done?”
“It is.”
Isabel pondered that. Her mood swing, so prevalent since they entered the solar, seemed to be waning at the moment. She was cooling. Douglas wasn’t entirely sure this was going to end pleasantly because she didn’t seem the type able or willing to surrender her pride, so he was on his guard as she began to pace again. She seemed lost in thought more than agitation or anger.
Still, he was on his guard.
“Then we should settle this once and for all,” she said. “I feel as if my request for assistance has opened the door to an invasion of another kind. An army of men is determined to keep my castle from Tatworth, but they don’t seem to realize they have taken it over just as Tatworth intended to do.”
“I am sorry you feel that way, my lady.”
“If I were to ask you to leave now, would you?”
“The truth is that I cannot until I have clear instructions from my brother.”
“Then I am, indeed, invaded. You were simply less violent about it.”
She had a point. Sort of. Douglas lifted his big shoulders. “Then how do you propose we settle this?”
Isabel looked at him, pondering the answer to that question. She was quite calculated when she wanted to be, and she wanted these men out. She knew they were men of honor and intended to use that to her advantage.
We should settle this once and for all.
She intended to.
“I will make a bargain with you, Sir Douglas,” she said. “Are you willing to listen?”
He sighed. “My lady, I cannot—”
“If you do not bargain with me, then I will be forced to send word to the king of your unlawful occupation of my castle,” she said, interrupting him. “I do not think he will be pleased, and even if he allows you to remain, it will cause… problems. Especially when I tell him that you have been coercing my young woman into romantic situations.”
She probably would. Douglas was beginning to curse Curtis for forcing him to remain at a post where he was so desperately unwanted. He could feel his irritation rise again but didn’t give in to it. He was sick of arguing with her. Perhaps if he agreed to her bargain, she would shut the hell up and accept what had been dealt.
“It would be unkind, and untrue, to do so,” he said in a low voice. “But if you wish to settle this once and for all, what is your proposal?”
Isabel’s gaze lingered on him for a moment before trailing away, across the solar, until it came to rest on a table with a game board upon it. She indicated it.
“My father was a man with a sharp mind,” she said, moving over to the table against the wall. When she came upon it, she reached down to pick up one of the many pieces on the game board. “He was a man of tactics, of great thought, and of victory. He taught me those aspects ofshatranj, a game he enjoyed greatly. Do you know how to play?”
Douglas nodded. “It is called chess,” he said. “My father learned to play it when he was on Richard’s crusade in the Levant and has taught it to his sons. We all learned to play.”
“Do you consider yourself an expert?”
“I am passable.”
