“My mother taught me that when she died.”
“And mine,” he agreed.
“And then my brother. There are risks.”
“Life is all risks, mistress.”
“A man who takes up a sword increases those risks.”
“As does a woman. Yet ye ask me to help ye do just that.”
That made her flare. “Ye who go out to fight, can ye imagine how it feels to ha’ a man put himsel’ forward to die on yer behalf? A man ye love?”
He shrugged. “So. Ye will marry some staid fellow who perhaps spends his time sitting sewing shoes or training ponies and never, never takes up a sword?”
“I do no’ mean to marry at all.”
She could barely glimpse his face now for the gloom, but she felthim eye her again, up and down.
“That would be a terrible shame.”
“I do no’ see why.”
“Mayhap that is because ye cannot see yourself.”
“You are permitted to choose the course of yer life. Why can’t I?” She leaned toward him now. “That is the heart of it, aye? Why am I no’ allowed to follow the same course in life as Geordie did?”
“Mayhap,” he said starkly, “because Geordie is dead. And ’tis the instinct o’ those who love ye to protect ye.”
She gave a derisive puff of breath, even though she knew his words made sense. “Does this mean ye will no longer train me?” It might be best, withal. Now that she’d been made aware of the desire, she was not sure she would feel quite so easy in his company.
But he answered equably, “Nay. It but means I will not speak with your father on your behalf, to send ye off the war.”
She grunted. “Well then, I do no’ ken how I am to persuade him.”
“Nor do I.”
“I might dress mysel’ as a lad, mayhap. Run awa’ and enlist my sword in Earl Randolph’s army.”
“What good would that do? Whom would it serve?” He laughed softly. “Comfort yourself, Katrin, with the knowledge that if, by some terrible twist o’ fate, the armies in the south are overrun and the English bring the fight here, ye shall be well prepared. Ye may stand upon the ramparts and defend yer home like the Celtic women o’ old.”
“’Tis a comfort, aye.”
He got to his feet. “Well, then. The hour grows late and I am off to me bed. We do not know what the morrow may bring.”
“Aye.”
He slanted a look at her. “Still friends?”
“To be sure,” she said readily.
They clasped arms as two warriors might. His smile was rueful. “A good night to ye, Katrin.”
She doubted she would sleep at all, with so many feelings astir inside. She did not say so.
Chapter Fourteen
On the followingmorning, after Katrin had taken care of a slew of duties, including making sure breakfast was underway in the kitchen, she stepped away from it all. She had no appetite herself for breakfast, with a welter of thoughts still possessing her. All that had happened last night.
