“Mayhap I would consider it if you act as my second,” Douglas said, tossing the towel aside and hunting for a clean tunic. “I will never again enter the solar alone. I feel too vulnerable if Lady Isabel is in there.”
Eric snorted. “Do not be troubled,” he said. “She likes you. Speaking of liking, what happened in the hall earlier?”
“With what?”
“With the scolding you gave Astoria.”
“Oh,” Douglas said as he picked up a dark blue tunic. “That.”
“Aye,that.”
Douglas shrugged. “There is nothing much to tell,” he said. “She has been harassing Mira because she feels that, somehow, Mira stole me away from her, and she broke a gift I’d given to the girl. I intervened.”
Eric nodded in understanding. “She is going around telling everyone you called her stupid and ugly.”
Douglas paused in pulling the tunic over his head. “You’ve heard this?”
“I have.”
Douglas rolled his eyes and finished pulling the garment over his head. “I did say that, but there was much more to it,” he said. “I told her that she was behaving stupidly and that made her ugly on the inside as well as the outside.”
Eric fought off a grin at Astoria’s dramatics. “I was sure there was more to it when I heard what happened,” he said. “If nothing else, you have been quite tactful since the day you arrived. You have never struck me as being the cruel sort, Douglas.”
“My mother did not raise me to be.”
Eric pushed himself off the doorjamb. “I did not think so,” he said. “But I thought you should be aware.”
Douglas straightened out his tunic, which clung to his magnificent torso. “Is anyone listening to her?”
“Not at all. They are telling her that she deserved it.”
“She did.”
Eric couldn’t help it. He burst into soft laughter. “Of that, I am certain.”
Douglas grinned as he picked up a comb and ran it through his hair. “Not to change the subject, but what do you know about de Honiton and his son?” he said. “I’ve heard the son fostered here for a few years.”
Eric nodded. “It was before my arrival,” he said. “Isabel tells me he was an undisciplined lad, spoiled, and his father refused to believe there was anything wrong with him.”
Douglas set the comb down. “One of those, eh?”
“One of those.”
Satisfied that his hair was properly combed, Douglas set the comb down and reached over to pick up his elaborate belt and scabbard, moving to strap them onto his waist. He wasn’t going to wear any protection this evening, but he also wasn’t going to enter a hall unarmed. That was something his father had taught him. Men drank and things happened, so it was always good to be armed.
“Mira told me that the lad behaved inappropriately toward her when they were both members of the de Kerrington household,” he said. “Evidently, he had feelings for her that were not returned, so he resorted to pinching her in delicate places.”
Eric was watching Douglas tie the leather straps of the scabbard onto his thigh to secure it. “I’d not heard that,” he said. “In fact, I know nothing about the father or the son. But I suspect you are telling me this for a reason.”
Finished with the ties, Douglas looked at him. “I am telling you this because Mira has agreed to permit me to court her,” he said. “I would hope the de Honiton son has grown up and developed manners, but if he has not, I will defend her. I am simply warning you should it come to that.”
Eric wasn’t surprised to hear that. “I had heard about your dramatic proposal in the ward yesterday,” he said. “So the rumors are true? You did declare your love?”
Douglas gave him a half-smile. “Not at that time,” he said. “I did it to discourage the girls who were following me around. It was only a ruse at the time, but the situation has changed since yesterday.”
“Now you are serious?”
“I am.”
