His lips twitched with a grin. “We are not enemies,” he said. “And your insults were hardly anything at all.”
“I think you are being kind again, but thank you. Then we are friends?”
“I would be honored.”
“Excellent,” Lista said. “Then you will do something else for me, please.”
“What is that?”
“If I insult you, or you are concerned with my behavior, will you come to speak to me directly and not send your sister as an emissary?”
Julian nearly choked on the food in his mouth in the face of her blunt and honest request. He knew exactly what she meant and, for a moment, thought to deny it. He was so unpracticed with women that his awkwardness was apparent, but looking at Lista, he realized he didn’t want to deny it.
He didn’t want to lie to her, not even for something as benign as this.
“I did not send her, I swear this to you,” he said after a moment. “Addie took matters into her own hands when I toldher that I feared I had somehow offended you. You ran away from me so quickly earlier… I did not know what I had done.”
He was looking at her with the hair hanging over his right eye as he always did. Lista found herself looking into the man’s beautiful face, for truly, he was a specimen to behold. She saw absolutely no reason why he needed to hide his eyes from her and after what Addington had told her, somehow, she didn’t like that he was. She’d seen his full face and it was exquisite. Boldly, she reached up and gently moved the hair away from the right side of his face, exposing both eyes.
He didn’t move.
For a moment, Lista simply looked at both eyes, smiling as she did so. Julian sat like stone, watching her like a hawk. Her smile grew as she tucked the hair back a little.
“You look like a young squire with your hair the way it is,” she said. “You have a handsome face, Sir Julian. You should not cover it up.”
Julian was starting to tremble. He had no idea why, but something in Lista’s touch was like a hot knife against butter– and he was the butter. Her touch had been so light, so gentle, but perhaps one of the more impacting things that had ever happened to him in his adult life and he had no idea why.
But her words…
He couldn’t decide if he was terribly embarrassed or terribly encouraged. Sweet words that he hadn’t expected, unsolicited and sympathetic. The way she had said it told him that Addington had indeed told her about his self-consciousness when it came to his eye color, but he didn’t care.
Her kind words meant a great deal to him.
“If I am to call you Lista, then surely you should call me Julian,” he managed to say, feeling giddy and awkward. “You do not think we are being too… forward?”
Lista dropped her hand from his hair. “Probably,” she said. “But you and I have had quite a day so it seems to me that if we have not killed each other by the end of it, then we should be fast and friendly companions. Agreed?”
“Agreed.”
“Tell me where you fostered, Julian.”
He did. Julian had never spoken so much about himself in his entire life. He drank, he ate, and he spoke of his younger years at Carlisle Castle before going to Northwood Castle for a time. His training had been difficult and strenuous and he’d spent his entire life in the north. He’d fought off countless Scots raids and he’d even fought against King John when the man was rousting warlords in the north towards the end of his reign. In all, he projected the image of a competent, highly trained knight who didn’t have the time or inclination for anything other than his vocation.
At least, that was the impression Lista got.
But she wasn’t going to feel bad this time. She wasn’t going to run from him. She was going to enjoy the evening with a handsome young knight she would probably never see again, but it was worth it to her. It was incredibly rare for her to have any conversational companion other than her mother and aunt, so this was a rare treat and she was grateful for it.
In her world, she had to accept the pleasant moments and not yearn for more.
“My lady?”
Torn from Julian’s tale of a particular Scotsman he’d had trouble with in one of the numerous battles he’d been part of, Lista found herself looking up at a very pretty woman with blonde hair, pinned to the nape of her neck. She had seen the woman sitting with Cole and Addington had indicated she was Cole’s wife, so Lista immediately rose to her feet to greet her hostess. The woman, however, put out her hands.
“Please sit,” she said. “I did not mean to disturb you, but Julian has been taking all of your time so I thought I should introduce myself. I am Lady de Velt, Cole’s wife.”
Lista regained her seat. “It is a great honor to know you, Lady de Velt,” she said. “The meal has been delicious. Thank you for your hospitality to my mother and my aunt and me. We are very grateful.”
Corisande smiled. She was a very lovely woman. “It is our pleasure,” she said. “My husband’s mother is with our children right now, but I was going to relieve her of the duty so she could come down here and speak with your mother, only your mother and aunt seemed to have disappeared.”
