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“As much as I’d love to claim the latter, I do work at Foxwood,” he responded.

“And what exactly do you do here?” she pressed. “Besides dressing up like Sir Lancelot.”

Matthew raised his horse’s stirrup over the saddle, more questions teetering at the edge of his tongue. She’d said she was expected, but by whom? A member of the household? The staff? As a guest or as a new employee?

He had a feeling she wasn’t going to be forthright in her answers until she knew his real identity, but he didn’t mind hiding that from her for at least a little while longer. Most people weren’t themselves when they knew who he was. He didn’t want this Winnie Knox to do the same.

“Oh, I do a bit here and there,” he responded vaguely. “Stable work. A few things around the estate. Simple stuff, really.”

“I see.”

“I can’t claim to be Sir Lancelot, though,” Matthew continued. “And to be honest, I’d prefer to be William Marshal. But I’d take anyone over Sir Cadogan.”

She delivered a blank stare, but Matthew wasn’t surprised. Her response was what he’d come to expect from most people when he showed his true colors and dropped his knightly act.

“William Marshal was England’s greatest knight,” he explained.

“Ah, yes,” she muttered with an averted gaze, clearly trying to make it appear like she knew of whom he spoke. “But Sir Cadogan was not nearly as admirable, I take it?”

Matthew nearly laughed before realizing she was serious. He sobered at once, rushing to explain so she wouldn’t think he was making fun of her. “No, Sir Cadogan was a knight in the Harry Potter books.”

Another blank stare.

“You…You haven’t read Harry Potter?” he asked.

“No. But I’ve seen the movies, and they’ve got to be just as good, right?”

He scoffed. As if the two mediums could even be compared. Seriously, who was this woman? Either way, he was finished waiting to find out because he now knew two very distinct facts about this Winnie Knox. One, she didn’t have any interest or knowledge in British history. And two, her opinion could not be trusted when in reference to books versus movies.

Really, if a person couldn’t be trusted in that regard, how could she be trusted at all?

Winnie had said something to upset Matthew. The only problem was that she didn’t know how she’d done it. Either way, she’d be better off changing the subject rather than risking offending him further.

“So,” she began, motioning once again to his armor, “you dress up like a knight to clean up horse poo?”

Matthew watched her for a moment, and she wondered if he’d even heard her before he turned away and responded. “Not typically. I merely ride dressed this way to keep the horses used to the sounds and weight. And the lance is to keep me primed and ready for jousting.”

Winnie couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. “Wait, like, jousting-jousting? Like with a lance and everything?”

Her eyes darted to the six-foot-long pole still propped up against the tree. “That is how one generally jousts,” he returned.

He shifted to face his horse more directly, grunting slightly as he secured the cinch around the gelding.

“Do they hold a renaissance faire here or something?” she asked, trying to make sense of it all.

“We do, but we call it a medieval festival, not a renaissance faire,” he responded.

“Gotcha. So it’s kinda like a real-life A Knight’s Tale?”

His brow lowered a fraction as he paused in prepping his horse. “No, not like A Knight’s Tale at all. That movie is completely historically inaccurate.”

She should have known he wouldn’t have appreciated the comparison. “What are you talking about? Queen was totally around during the eighth century.” There, she’d redeemed herself. Eighth Century. “And in my opinion, “We Will Rock You” is the best part of the movie.”

He stared at her with a look of confusion before he seemed to realize she was teasing him. One corner of his mouth raised in a smile, and his shoulders seemed to lower in time with his defenses.

That had been fun, teasing him. Maybe she could get away with doing it again.

“I do wonder, though,” she continued, “if you fault Harry Potter for being historically inaccurate as much as you do A Knight’s Tale.”