“How should I know what that great ox was bellowing about?” she snapped. “How can a low being like myself know what a friend of the king thinks?”
To her consternation, Jocelin laughed aloud and left her, whistling what Alyx knew was a ribald little song.
“Men!” she cursed, tossing the buckets into the river, hauling up sand and rocks with the water and then having to repeat the process. The second time she paused, tears in her eyes. “Boy,” she whispered to the cold, rushing water. Did she mean so little to him that he couldn’t even remember their night together?
Perhaps he needed a few hours to remember, she thought as she went back to the tent, stopping to tell Blanche Raine wanted food.
“I should know,” Blanche said, her voice sweet, insinuating. “He’s already called me to him, and I must say that Raine Montgomery has lost none of his strength,” she said loudly for the benefit of the people around her, ostentatiously fastening the top of the dirty shirt she wore. “I’ve taken him his food.”
With her chin up, Alyx entered the tent, her shoulders dragged down by the heavy buckets.
“What took you so long?” Raine asked, his mouth full.
She whirled to face him. “I have more duties than fetching your food,” she said angrily. “And it looks like that whore of yours can well provide for you.”
“Fair enough,” he said evenly, tearing into a leg of pork. “Perhaps we should work on your prudery. A woman is a woman, a fragile, helpless thing, someone to be protected and loved, no matter what her station in life. If you treat a whore like a lady, she’ll be one, and a lady can become a whore. It all depends on the man. Remember that. You’re a long way from reaching manhood yet, but when you do—”
“When I do I won’t need any advice from you,” she fairly shouted before turning toward the exit, where she slammed into Jocelin. With one angry glance at him, she pushed past him and left the tent.
Joss glanced at Raine, took a seat on a stool and idly began to strum the lute while Raine silently ate. After a moment, Joss stopped playing.
“How long have you known about Alyx?” Joss asked.
Only a hesitation in his eating showed that Raine had heard. “For a matter of hours, really,” he said calmly. “And how long have you known?”
“Always.” He laughed at Raine’s expression. “I was surprised no one else did. To me she was like a little girl dressed in her brother’s clothes. When you called her a boy I couldn’t believe you meant it.”
“I wish the hell you’d told me,” Raine said with feeling, a dimple appearing in his cheek. “A few days ago she was writing a letter for me and I nearly kissed her. I was sick for hours afterward.”
“You’ve worked her harder than anyone else, you know.”
“Perhaps I was trying to change her shape,” Raine laughed. “I’ve been fascinated by her legs for some time.”
“And now what do you plan to do with her?”
Pushing the tray away, Raine leaned back on the cot, feeling very weak, very weary. “Do you know how much of her story is true? What has Pagnell done to her?”
“Accused her of robbing him, declared her a witch, put a fat reward on her head.”
Raine lifted one eyebrow at Joss, feeling foolish that he knew so little about what went on under his nose. “How do you think the filth of this camp would react to a young girl in their midst? One whose capture would bring them a reward?”
A snort from Joss was the only answer.
“I think it’s best she stay a boy,” Raine said thoughtfully, “and under my protection. The fewer people who know of her true identity the better.”
“But you will tell Alyx you know she’s a girl, won’t you?”
“Ha!” Raine grunted. “Let the baggage suffer as I have. She’s flipped that pretty little tail of hers at me at every opportunity, and this morning when I realized how she’d played me for a fool, I could have wrung her neck. No, let her stew awhile. She thinks I don’t remember—” He glanced quickly at Joss. “She thinks I don’t know she’s female, let her stay that way.”
Jocelin stood. “You won’t be too hard on her, will you? Unless I’m mistaken, I think she believes herself to be in love with you.”
Raine’s grin was face splitting. “Good. No, I’ll not harm her, but I will make her taste a bit of her own medicine.”
An hour later, when Alyx returned to the tent, her chin pointed toward the sky, Raine and Jocelin were leisurely playing a game of dice, neither of them seeming to be much interested in the game.
“Alyx,” Raine said, not bothering to look up. “Did you practice on the field today? You’re scrawny enough without losing the little muscle you have.”
“Practice,” she gasped, then calmed herself. “For some reason I don’t understand now, I was concerned about whether you lived or died and gave no thought to embellishing my puny body.”
