“A strange choice of companion for a knight,” she mused.
Bartholomew found himself grinning. “He oft said he would have preferred to have left me behind, but I would not allow it.”
She smiled up at him. “Aye, I can imagine you to be so stubborn as that.”
“At least we have a trait in common.”
Her smile turned knowing, then she tugged his tabard over his head. She folded it with care and laid it beside his belt. She wrinkled her nose as she surveyed his hauberk.
“Over my head,” he said. “I will bend over and you must ease it to the ground. Do not attempt to catch it. Just get it off my back.”
Anna nodded and he bent as he had said. As was oft the case, the hauberk caught on his padded aketon. Anna tugged it free and it fell to the ground with a clatter of steel. Bartholomew rolled his shoulders once he was relieved of its weight.
Anna, of course, tried to lift it. She swore softly but with vigor. “All day, you bear this burden?”
“It is better than a blade between the ribs.” Bartholomew scooped up the hauberk, putting it alongside his belt.
Anna was frowning when he turned. “You said you came from Outremer.”
“Aye. My friend was sworn to the Templars, and he was dispatched to serve in Jerusalem. I went with him as his squire, almost fifteen years ago.” He turned his back on Anna that she might unlace his aketon. He felt her fingers tugging on the lace.
“But he left the order?”
“His older brother died, and he became heir to his family holding in France. It was a surprise to him, to be sure.”
“Did he take a wife?”
“Aye, for he desired an heir with all haste. To be sure, he knew little of women after his years in the service of the order.”
“One might not lead to the other for many men.”
“True, but it did for Gaston. He is a knight of much honor and merit.”
“You admire him.” He heard the smile in her voice.
“How could I not? He was all I knew a knight should be, and as soon as he had the right to do so, he dubbed me a knight.”
“Granting you rich gifts.”
He turned and helped to tug the aketon forward.
Her gaze was assessing. “He must have thought well of you.”
“I hope so.”
Anna arched a brow.
“You are right,” Bartholomew acknowledged with a smile. “I know so.”
“Yet there was no place for you in his new household?”
“Why do you ask as much?”
“Because you are here and he is not. Further, this is not France.” She propped her hands on her hips to regard him as he removed the aketon and set it aside. “Or did you lose his favor?” She shook her head. “I cannot believe it. A man such as you and a man such as he would find no points of disagreement. It would be honor and integrity on all sides.”
Bartholomew smiled at this assessment of his nature and that of Gaston, not just its accuracy but that Anna thought well of him.
She snapped her fingers and turned upon him. “Fergus said aught of this,” she said, evidently just recalling as much. “That there was little point in his offering you a post as you had declined Gaston’s offer.”
