“All except for Galahad.” Lance turned the name over like he was examining a strange coin.
“Galahad is purity incarnate; you know that as well as I do. He’s never known the joys of the flesh and has no intention of knowing them. He’s moved by his religion and his religion alone.” I paused as I thought about it. “He’s the perfect warden.”
“Yet he said he believed she should be put to death for her crimes.”
“Even better still.”
Lance looked up at me and frowned, so I explained.
“He won’t be taken in by her beauty and her charm.”
“Right. He might just kill her instead.”
I shook my head. “Galahad is many things, but what he isn’t is a man who would go against his king’s orders. And once I give him the order that he’s to be her warden, he will rise to that occasion, I am certain.”
Lance leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and I watched the calculation move through his eyes. He was fast and always had been. It was one of the many reasons I kept him close. That and he was the most loyal man I’d ever known.
“I thought you had plans to test her magic in the training yard, to see just what she’s capable of? Was that not what you said in the last council meeting?”
I nodded. “I am still planning on it, but I need some time to figure out exactly the best way forward. In the meantime, she will be Galahad’s charge.”
“It’s not a terrible idea.”
I nodded. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s theonlyidea.” I refilled my goblet and took a long sip of the bitter wine. “Galahad’s purity isn’t sentiment; it’s architecture. Whatever she tries to use on him: charm, manipulation, that face and body... it won’t find purchase. He’s built himself into something she can’t erode.”
“Perhaps.”
I was surprised by the bit of skepticism I detected in his tone. “I would put my money on Galahad, were I a betting man.”
“I don’t know that I would be so certain of him.”
“No?”
He shrugged. “Look at what she was able to do while she was Lioran. She fooled all of us. That speaks of a conniving mind and someone not only highly capable but... damned good at it. What’s more: we only know Lioran, something that was simply a disguise, a fiction she wore like armor for months.”
“True. None of us knows Guinevere. Not her methods, not her limits, not the full measure of what she’s capable.” And that was one of the reasons I needed time with her, whether in the training yard or elsewhere. I needed to break through those walls so I could strip the person at her core and remake her into the person I wanted her to be.
“She’s Merlin’s instrument. That alone should be sufficient cause for caution.”
“Lance, I assure you I am full of caution where she’s concerned.” I took a breath. “And even if it were true: even if she had no interest in seducing any of my men... I wouldn’t trust a single one of them not to make the attempt himself, to press where she hadn’t invited pressure.”
He shook his head at that. “That’s not the way of the knight, not the code we swear by, and not the ideal we’re meant to embody.”
“But it’s the reality nonetheless,” I argued. “Men are thorough in their self-deception, particularly when beauty is involved.”
The corner of Lance’s mouth shifted into the expression he wore when he found something admirably cold. “And Galahad has agreed to this scheme of yours?”
“I don’t know yet, as I haven’t told him of my scheme.” I downed another swallow of wine. “Though I’m quite certain he’llbe happy to accept whatever his king wishes.” I took a breath. “And with her magic bound, I can rest assured that she won’t be able to harm him.”
“You’re putting all your eggs in Galahad’s basket, then?”
I nodded. “I suppose I am. But I believe it’s the only way. What’s more, perhaps he can reform her through prayer, penance, and whatever monastic rituals he’s got in that head of his. A woman in the process of being spiritually reformed is a woman beingcarefully observed.” I turned to face him fully. “And if it happens to soften her toward cooperation... I call that an additional benefit.”
Lance sat back slowly, looking at me with that particular expression, the one that meant he’d arrived at the same conclusion I had and wasn’t entirely comfortable with himself for it.
“It’s an interesting idea,” he said finally.
“Yes. It is.”
