“There will be no next time!”Berthe glared at Bayard, but Quinn noted that her gaze was snared once she dared to look.
“I think there might be,” Bayard murmured.Berthe flushed and the other knight’s eyes sparkled, then she seized the bucket and marched up the stairs.
“Ah, Berthe, surely you do not give this rogue more of your attention than he deserves?”Niall asked as he appeared on the stairs.He smiled at the maid with all his charm, blocking her progress.“I must advise you that if you mean to choose a companion, I will grant you a merrier time than my sorry comrade there.”
“You, sir, may keep your counsel to yourself,” the maid snapped and glared at Niall until he stepped to one side.He blew a kiss after her, but she ignored him.
“She is this close, despite her chatter,” Niall murmured, holding his thumb and finger an increment apart.
Quinn might have smiled at his comrade’s confidence but he noticed Bayard’s dark glance.“I would place my wager upon the maid,” he confessed.
“That is because you know so little of the seductive arts,” Niall said, continuing down the stairs to the board.“Should you have need of advice, I could teach you tricks that ensure your lady wife will not permit you to leave the solar before noon.”
That seemed unlikely to Quinn, but he left the matter be.His other comrades were descending to the hall and he conferred with them as they broke their fast together.He then indicated to Louis that he would welcome the villeins to hear what they knew of the raids.
The brigands had to be routed for Quinn to have any chance of a happy future with Melissande.Unlike the challenge of winning her heart, this task, mercifully, was within his skills.
Melissande could not believeshe had been so wanton.There was something about Quinn that provoked both her trust and her desire.It made no sense that he should have such an ability to influence her when she knew so little of him.It made no sense that she could find herself so quick to abandon her concerns about his family.
It was troubling indeed how readily she forgot her pledge to Arnaud.
She rose with purpose, intending to be her usual disciplined self again.Quinn had agreed to seduce her only when invited: she would not invite him to do as much so quickly again.She wondered if he would turn to another woman for satisfaction, felt a twinge of dislike at the very notion, then knew he would not.
How curious that she should be so certain of his honorable nature in that matter at least.
Perhaps she had been misled.She would speak to Gaultier this very morn and learn what he knew or suspected of Quinn.She would take advantage of Quinn’s absence to muster her few resources.
“Good morning, my lady!”Berthe said as she entered the solar.She had made the merest knock upon the door before entering.She threw open the shutters, making her way around the chamber, admitting both the chill of the wind and the sunlight.
“Your lord husband already breaks his fast, my lady.”
“Aye.”Melissande began to wash.“I will have the blue kirtle this day, the one wrought in the colors of Annossy.”
“With the white veil and blue slippers,” Berthe said, knowing her lady’s taste well.
“And that silver girdle, if you please.”
“Aye, my lady.”The maid moved to the chest where Melissande’s kirtles were stored, then hesitated.She turned.“Your lord husband does not have a tabard in the colors of Annossy.”
“We can hardly be faulted for that, as we did not know he would be Lord d’Annossy but two days past,” Melissande noted with a smile.
Berthe nodded.“Aye, but should one be made for him?”
Melissande had not truly considered Quinn would be a permanent resident of Annossy, but she supposed she should.She simply had not progressed so far in understanding the changes that resulted from her marriage.“We should,” she said then, thinking of the stores of cloth.“Is there not a short length of deep blue wool?”
“I believe so, my lady,” Berthe said, bringing the kirtle to her.“I will search for it today.”
“Thank you, Berthe.”
The maid frowned.“Does Lord Quinn intend to reside here or at Sayerne?”
Melissande paused.“What have you heard?”
“The knight Bayard was most eloquent in the kitchen last night about Sayerne and his comrade’s intention of restoring it to its former glory.”
Melissande refrained from making a skeptical sound.Sayerne had never been glorious, at least not in her lifetime.
“He vows he will live there.”
