“Le Kerque?” he said, surprised. “I did not see your name on the rolls. Don’t tell me that your lord accompanied you here?”
Lance nodded. “He did, my lord,” he said. “He sends his greetings.”
Christopher was surprised to hear it. “He must be feeling better, then?”
“He seems to be, my lord,” Land said. “He wanted very much to attend.”
“Are you competing?”
“Tomorrow,” Lance said. “I was supposed to enter the games for the joust, but we came too late for me to be added. I am, however, entered in the mass competition. I was here in the staging area, greeting some friends, when I saw Lady Rebecca. I am happy to escort her if your men are otherwise occupied.”
Christopher looked at the men around him. He only saw men who served him, or his allies, and he had no idea what had happened to Curtis, but he didn’t want to send Rebecca off with a knight he barely knew, even if the man did serve a trusted ally.
“Your offer is kind, but no need,” he said. “Sherry will escort her.”
“Papa!” Rebecca said unhappily. She’d been rather flattered at the handsome knight’s offer, but now it was turning into an embarrassment. “Nay.”
She drew the word out as if implying to him, in one small word, that she truly didn’t want to be seen, yet again, with her sister’s husband. Alexander seemed to be her escort all too frequently because he was a family member and a father with children of his own, so he tended to be judgmental and protective when it came to his ravishing sister-in-law. It was like having a personal guard dog, something Rebecca didn’t want.
And Christopher was well aware of it.
“Then you may choose,” he said. “It is either me or Sherry. Those are your choices.”
Rebecca frowned in an expression that looked very much like her mother. In fact, she had a personality much like hermother’s had been when Christopher first met the lovely Dustin, Lady Hereford. A spitfire was a fairly apt term. Therefore, when Rebecca turned on her heel and began marching away without either escort, Christopher wasn’t surprised. With Rebecca, that kind of thing was expected. But he silently nodded to Alexander, who took the hint and began to follow Rebecca as she stormed off.
De Lohr women were feisty that way.
That left Lance standing there rather awkwardly, since his offer of an escort had been refused. Christopher realized that. Not wanting to offend the knight, he offered a brief explanation.
“She can be difficult to handle even in the best of times,” he said quietly. “I meant no offense against you, because your offer was kind, but Rebecca is… headstrong. It would be unfair to put you in a situation where she might be unmanageable. At least she has a healthy fear of Sherry and that alone will keep her from running amok.”
Lance understood. Sort of. “Of course, my lord,” he said. “No offense taken.”
“Good,” Christopher said. Then he gestured toward the lists. “Take me to Eckington. I’ve not seen the man in some time and I should like to greet him. This is my tournament, after all. I should like to be a good host.”
“My pleasure, my lord,” Lance said. “At least I shall be able to escort one de Lohr today.”
He grinned as Christopher conceded the point. As the pair of them headed off toward the lists, that left Essien still standing there, realizing that le Kerque had saved him from the predatory redhead. Better still, he’d come through it without raising her father’s anger. It would have been easy to give in to her and become the son-in-law of the great Earl of Hereford and Worcester, but that wasn’t what Essien wanted out of life. Heloved the de Lohr family, so that wasn’t the issue. But settling was. Marriage was.
He didn’t want to do either at the moment.
Out on the tournament field, he noticed that the marshals were preparing another pair of knights, ready to run at one another. He recognized the colors, as one was a knight from Ludlow and the other was none other than William de Wolfe’s elder brother, Jonathan de Wolfe. The bout promised to be exciting because Jonathan de Wolfe, or “Wolfie,” as he was known, was as passionate a competitor as his younger brother. More so, even. The de Wolfe brothers hadn’t gone up against one another in competition yet, but if things progressed the way everyone expected them to, William and Jonathan would go against each other at some point.
And that promised to be quite a match.
“Es!”
Essien was distracted from his observations of the tournament field by a shout, turning around to see Addax trying to catch his attention.
“What is it?” Essien called.
Addax waved him over. “Get over here,” he said. “We’ve another bout later today, brother, and if you do not get over here to inspect your lances, I will damage them and you will fail.”
Essien headed in his brother’s direction, grinning. “It is the only way you will be able to beat me when we go against one another.”
Addax snorted. “That is bold talk coming from a man who still sucks his thumb when he goes to sleep.”
Essien rolled his eyes. “I do suck, but not thumbs,” he said, a naughty smile on his lips. “At least, not myownthumbs.”
