Saer watched de Lara blow by him, followed by St. Héver. “At least thirty or forty men,” he said. “They have already drawn lots to see who will compete against each other. See that wall on the opposite side of the arena? They will hang banners there so we will know who is competing against whom.”
“Papa?” Abechail wedged herself in between Roxane and Saer, tugging on her father’s sleeve. “Papa, there is a vendor selling candied fruits. I saw a girl with some. Can I please have some?”
Saer didn’t want to leave now that the knights were warming up, but he couldn’t very well let Abechail go by herself and he certainly couldn’t deny her. Hurriedly, he grabbed her hand and very nearly pulled her off the lists. Young Roman was invited to go along as Saer and the two children went in search of sweets. Cathlina and Roxane didn’t much care, fixed on the knights as they were.
As they were watching Tate and Kenneth make practice runs along the guide, a knight on an enormous bay stallion entered the field. Bearing a tunic of straight yellow without any of the elaborate embroidery the other knights had, he was a massive man in heavy protection as he thundered across the arena, struggling with his disobedient horse. The charger was very young and very excitable, and it was difficult not to notice the pair as the charger kicked up his white feet and generally behaved badly. He was so beautiful, however, that the struggle between man and beast became mesmerizing to watch.
Cathlina’s attention was divided between Tate, Kenneth, and the new knight with the wild horse. Soon enough, she was only watching the knight with the excitable horse, as was nearly everyone else around her, because the pair was making practice runs along the guide. When they made a run past another horse, the excitable bay tried to savage the other charger and the field marshals were called in. It was one thing for the big chargers to savage each other in battle but quite another to have it happen in a tournament.
“Mayhap they will not let him compete,” Roxane said to her sister, pointing at the knight with the agitated horse in themiddle of the arena as he spoke with two of the field marshals. “That horse is very mean.”
Cathlina shrugged. “They are all very mean,” she said, indicating a knight off to their left whose horse was muzzled with a great steel cage. “Look at that horse. They have to put a barrier around his mouth.”
They were both watching the knight with the muzzled horse when two big chargers suddenly roared up beside them. Dirt flew up, hitting Roxane in her greased-up hair, and she shrieked. Cathlina found herself carefully picking the dirt out of her sister’s hair as Tate and Kenneth lifted their visors.
“My lady,” Tate said to his wife, who was rising from her seat to greet him. “Do you have a favor for me to carry before this great and terrible production begins?”
Toby grinned her lovely white smile, fumbling around in her long sleeve before pulling free a small white kerchief. As she went to hand it to him, the twins decided they wanted to ride with their father and started climbing up on the railing to get at him. Cathlina and Toby pulled the boys down as they demanded to go with their father. As Toby admonished the twins on their behavior, her beautiful five year old daughter, Catherine, calmly went to her father and extended a little posy she had picked that morning on the way to the arena. Tate took it from the little girl as if it were the finest treasure.
“Thank you, Cate,” he said, smiling at her. “This is the best favor I have ever received.”
As the little girl beamed, Kenneth put in. “And there is no favor for me?” he asked her. “I am deeply hurt, Catie. I thought you loved me best.”
Cate giggled as Roxane spoke up. “You may have my favor, Sir Kenneth,” she said, pulling forth an elaborate and heady-smelling piece of silk from her bosom. She held it out to him,feigning shyness and batting her eyelashes. “I would be honored if you would carry it.”
Fortunately, Kenneth was adept at keeping an emotionless façade. His first instinct was to recoil and run away, but he fought it. He faced Roxane’s offensive bravely.
“I am honored, Lady Roxane,” he said, although he didn’t mean a word of it. “But you must not feel pity for me. There are dozens of young knights here that would be very proud to wear your favor. Surely you do not want to give it to an old knight like me.”
Roxane was flattered and offended at the same time. She looked around at the other competitors, rather uncertainly, until Cathlina came to her rescue.
“She does not know any of the other competitors, Sir Kenneth,” she said. “Since you do not have a favored young lady today, my sister honors you with her offer. She will cheer you louder than anyone.”
Roxane was back to her false modesty pose as Kenneth began to sweat. But he knew he couldn’t get out of it so he simply nodded.
“I am humbled, my lady,” he said without a hint of defeat in his voice.
Roxane smiled brightly as she extended the kerchief. Kenneth took it and, with a smell that nearly knocked him off his horse, quickly tucked it into his armor and tried to get it as far away from his nose as he could. With a stiff bob of the head, he slammed his faceplate down and thundered off. Roxane watched him wistfully.
“Mayhap Father should ask him again if he is agreeable to a betrothal,” she whispered to Cathlina. “He seemed very pleased by my favor, don’t you think?”
Cathlina wasn’t so sure but she nodded anyway. “I do,” she said. “He is very handsome. You would make a fine match with him.”
Her heart full of admiration for Sir Kenneth, Roxane moved away from the rail to regain her seat as Cathlina remained, watching the knights as they finished warming their horses and, one by one, began leaving the field. She noticed that Tate was still lingering at the rail, holding his wife’s hand sweetly and kissing her fingers as they murmured soft words between them. She noticed how much in love they were, a love that most women wanted but seldom achieved. Love, like the kind her cousin shared with his wife, was very rare. Her heart tugged a bit for want of that kind of love. She wondered if she’d ever be fortunate enough to have it.
Tate kissed his wife one last time and lowered his face plate, charging off in the same direction Kenneth had taken. Cathlina continued to linger by the rail, watching the knights, her mind wandering to Mathias and wondering if she should try and slip away to see him now that her father was occupied. Her mother kept close watch of her, however, and she casually turned around to see that her mother and Roxane were in intense conversation. No doubt plotting on how to wrest a betrothal out of Sir Kenneth, Cathlina thought wryly. She thought the man had looked rather stricken when he had been forced to take Roxane’s favor because he was no-doubt fearful of what that would lead to. Fighting off a smile at the memory, she was caught off-guard when the knight on the wild bay charger suddenly pulled up to the railing.
“My lady,” he said in his glorious deep voice. “Are you spoken for?”
Cathlina was prepared to ignore the bold knight and turn her back to him when something in his voice made her stop. There was something strangely familiar about it and she looked at him,cocking her head in an increasingly inquisitive manner. She had heard those words before, earlier in the day, in the same soft and deep timbre. Could it be…?
“I asked you a question, my lady,” he said, his voice considerably quieter. “Are you spoken for?”
A light of recognition went on in Cathlina’s head. She could hardly believe it. “That depends,” she said quietly, leaning forward on the rail to gain a better look at him. “Are you asking for yourself, perchance?”
“I am.”
“Let me see your face.”
