Kevin nodded. “I do, indeed, Your Grace.”
It was quite evident that the man was starving and unwilling to speak more on himself or on anything else, which utterly frustrated Edward. He had hoped for great tales this night. He glanced at Victor, whose attention was back on the young male servant, which caused Edward to sigh heavily with exasperation. Nothing was going as he had wished. Turning back to his wine, he caught sight of slender, female hands down the table and his attention shifted to Annavieve, all but forgotten in the wake of the legendary Scorpion.
“Ah,” he said, attention now turned to his cousin’s betrothed. “Lady Annavieve will surely entertain us even if Hage will not. Surely she can recite something.”
Now the focus was on Annavieve who, thus far, had remained relatively unnoticed. Everyone, including her, had been quite smitten by the big knight known as the Scorpion. But men were looking at her now, men she didn’t know, and she was suddenly very self-conscious. Terrified, even. Annavieve made eye contact with the expectant king.
“I wish I could recite fine poetry, Your Grace, but alas, I cannot,” she said. “The sisters at Sempringham had the wardsmemorize the Bible from the beginning until the end. I am afraid I can only recite passages from the Bible.”
Edward was seemingly amused. “Recite something that has a scorpion in it.”
Uncomfortable, Annavieve struggled to think of a Bible verse with a scorpion in it and she could only think of one. Her gaze flickered nervously to Kevin, but she could only see the top of his head because he was hunched over his trencher. She had no idea what the man who had been very kind to her would think of her reciting such a thing. Yet, she had no choice. Much to her chagrin, her voice was trembling as she spoke.
“And their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he striketh a man,” she said, “and in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it: and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.”
Edward chuckled, looking to some of his advisors, who were snorting as well. Then his gaze moved to Kevin. “Is that what you do?” he asked. “Cause men to wish they were dead because your strike is so painful?”
Kevin swallowed the bite in his mouth. “Unlike that Biblical passage, Your Grace, I do not leave my victims alive to wish for a death that has already come to them,” he said, sounding matter-of-fact. “They would wish for what they already have.”
Edward’s grin broadened as he turned back to Annavieve, who was obviously very uncomfortable. But the king saw it as a great game, a game that was somehow managing to draw Hage into a conversation whether or not he wanted to be. Edward waved to Annavieve again.
“Excellent, my lady,” he said. “Surely there are more like that.”
Annavieve was quite mortified at this point, embarrassed because she couldn’t recite anything finer than Bible verses for men who controlled the whole of England. It was as if the kingwere trying to prove to everyone at the table that she was not a fine and cultured lady, but a Welsh barbarian who had been caged in a convent all of her life. She saw Edward’s motives as humiliation.
“Nay, Your Grace,” she said, averting her gaze. “I am afraid I cannot think of any more.”
Edward grunted. “No more verses?” he repeated. “Then sing us a song. Surely you know hymns to entertain us with.”
Sing us a song, you lowly Welsh chit. That was what Annavieve heard. The haughty English king was demanding she embarrass herself. He wanted her to. Well, she would not give him the satisfaction. She was embarrassed to the bone at the moment but she would not let the man win. She would show him what her Welsh blood was capable of.
Quietly, she stood up and moved to the end of the table so everyone could see her. In her borrowed brocaded dress, she had no idea just how ethereal and beautiful she looked. It was something that was noticed by every man at the table except for Victor, who didn’t care in the least. He was trying to figure out how to get the young male servant he’d been watching into his bed.
Annavieve, however, wasn’t looking at Victor. He’d made it plain that he was not interested in her. Her focus was on the king and on Kevin, seated next to him, as she lifted her voice in dulcet soprano tones in perfectly spoken Latin.
“Agedum mitis Deus, precor,
Qui in altis Dominus noster victoriam.
Salva nos, Deus, misericordiam tuam in gratiam
Deus salutaris noster, hic caeli et terrae omnipotentem Dominum benedicebant.”
Her pure, crystal-clear voice rang throughout the chamber, quickly quieting any soft conversation. She garnered the attention of everyone there, including the servants and, towards the end, even Victor. Even Edward was shocked with the beauty of her voice, so much so that he actually stood up to face her.
“With a voice of such beauty, all you know are hymns?” he asked, aghast. “Did the nuns teach you nothing else?”
Annavieve looked him straight in the eye. “You forbad them to teach me anything else, Your Grace,” she said. “I am forbidden to sing anything from my father’s country.”
Edward blinked as if caught off-guard by her reply but he quickly recovered. He didn’t detect a rebuke, simply fact. He lifted his eyebrows as he regained his seat.
“Clearly, I was wrong,” he said, looking to Victor. “Did you hear her? You will make sure that she has a proper instructor to teach her every song ever written and then she will sing them all for me. Your betrothed has a gift from God, Victor. You must nurture it.”
Victor, although moderately impressed with Annavieve’s singing, was still quite indifferent towards her. Talent or no, he still had no interest in her and no amount of convincing by the king could persuade him otherwise.
“I will make sure she is properly taught,” he said, almost irritably, before his gaze fell on Kevin, seated across from him. “I would like to know what Hage thinks of her singing. Does she compare to the dark-skinned barbarian women in the Levant? I have heard they sing most deviantly.”
Kevin was nearly done with his food. He took a long drink of wine before looking at Victor. “There is no contest between the lady, who I’ve yet been formally introduced to, and women from the Holy Land,” he said in a mild rebuke to both Victor and the king for their lack of manners. “The lady is by far more talentedand beautiful than any woman I have come across in my travels. That is a fact.”
