He removed the sliced cheese and bread and placed them before her, then quickly poured a goblet of wine. “Name is Wace.” He propped the platter against the wall. “Inept squire to Lord Valteri. At least that’s what he tells me most days.” He winked at her. “If you have any needs—”
“Lord Valteri’s squire?” she repeated, interrupting him.
He nodded.
She picked up a piece of cheese as she considered that. “Served him long, have you?”
Suspicion darkened his eyes and he watched her like a mother hare guarding her young from a circling kestrel. “Long enough to know that milord welcomes no questions be asked of a personal nature. Such queries are oft met with a severe tongue-lashing. Which, truth be told, can be worse than an actual beating. Milord is quite the master of harsh witticisms that can cut soul deep.”
She sucked her breath in. “My deepest apologies, good squire. I had no idea he’d been so hard on you.”
“Oh, not me, milady. He restrains himself for some reason where I’m concerned. He’s only a beast if I wake him too early in the morn, and then ’tis never personal. Rather, he grunts and growls like a feral bear coming out of hibernation. But for others… His words are like a head injury.…”
“How so?”
“Hilarious when they happen to another. Quite painful when you’re the recipient.”
She wasn’t quite sure what to make of that as she chewed her cheese and swallowed it. So, Ariel smiled at the lad to reassure him. “Well, I mean your lord no harm, good Wace. I only wanted to know why his own name bothers him.”
“Ah! Then you mustn’t have heard of Valterius the Godless.” He spoke in a low tone for her alone.
She shook her head. “Should I have?”
Eyes wide, he pulled a chair up next to her and took a seat. Then, he leaned forward on his elbows as if to impart a great secret. “You are definitely one of the few who hasn’t. Even when we came to England, it seemed that most everyone we met knew him on sight. Even I was amazed that his reputation had spread so far and wide.”
“Why would his fame not inspire your joy? I thought all boys wanted to serve well-known masters.”
Deep sadness filled his eyes. “He’s a good man, milady.” Wace looked around the room as if afraid someone might overhear him. “Behind his back, they whisper horrible, ungodly things about my lord. Things I know to be malicious lies.”
“Such as?”
“That he’s Lucifer’s bastard.”
She laughed aloud at the very thought. “Lucifer’s bastard, indeed. He doesn’t look a thing like him.”
A strange light darkened Wace’s eyes. He shifted nervously. “You speak as if you know what Lucifer would look like.”
Chills crept along Ariel’s spine as an image of a beautiful fair-haired man popped into her mind. One who was charming and familiar.
But that was insanity.
So she laughed it off, even though her chills remained. “How could I know such? But my guess would be that he’s dark and sinister, with the face of a gargoyle. Nowhere near as beautiful as our lord, Valteri.”
And still something inside told her that she was lying.
Wace’s humor returned. “Aye, and has pointed ears, no doubt.”
“No doubt. And a forked tongue, like a serpent.”
“Fangs, too.”
That seemed to placate the boy, who remained to keep her company while she ate.
Once she finished, Wace took her to the bower room, where a number of other women were gathered to embroider and sew.
“Milord thought that if you attended your regular duties it might help you to regain your memory.”
Ariel scowled as she glanced around the unfamiliar room, and at the women who sat about and gossiped. There was absolutely nothing familiar about it.
