Rise of the Defender (58 page)

     Resigning his wife to her fate, which would
probably include a case of monkey warts, Christopher moved beyond the situation
and ordered the nooning meal, albeit an hour late. He then sent a soldier to
find his knights, including Marcus, and request their presence at the meal. He
then proceeded to remove his armor, eyeing his wife as she tried to talk to the
monkey in the polished bronze mirror.

     “Sweetheart, I need your help,” he told
her, holding out his arms so she could help him remove his hauberk.

     Dustin pulled off the heavy mail and let it
fall the floor. His quilted shirt underneath was wet with perspiration and his
hair was slicked with moisture.

     “Why do not you change into clean
clothing?” she suggested helpfully.

     “Why?” he asked, moving to pour himself a
goblet of wine. “The clothes would simply become soiled just as these are since
I am going to fight all afternoon.”

     “But you smell,” she pointed out bluntly.
“And I, for one, find it unappetizing.”

     He raised a blond eyebrow. “You who speaks
with a louse-ridden monkey in your hair? If we have to cut all your hair off
because that miniature creature, Dustin, I swear I will kill it.”

     She shushed him loudly. “He will never come
out if you say things like that.”

     There was a knock at the door and he moved
past her. “It had better be out by tonight or I shall rip it free myself.”

     “Why?” she teased boldly. “Can’t you make
love to me with a monkey screaming in your ear? I scream in your ear.”

     He shot her a reproving look and jerked the
door open for David, Edward and Leeton. They scarcely had time to enter the
room when Dustin was excitedly showing them her latest pet and Christopher
shook his head with resignation. She was more excited about the monkey than she
was about the huge diamond ring he had bought her, but he didn’t particularly
care. It was a tribute to his wife's lack of materialistic value and he was pleased
all the same.

     “Show them what I bought you, Dustin, if
you can spare the time,” he remarked dryly.

     She smiled at him and held up her left
hand, shoving the ring right in David's face. All three knights grunted with
approval.

     “A fine ring,” David said. “Jesus, had she
been any closer that thing would have knocked my eye out.”

     “Where'd on earth did you find a monkey,
Chris?” Leeton asked, trying to urge the animal out of its hovel.

     “My wife found it,” he replied
disinterestedly. “David, did you have the destriers reshod as I asked?”

     “This morning,” his brother replied,
picking through Dustin's hair to get a better look at the monkey.

     Christopher eyed the men as they gingerly
lifted his wife's hair in search of the great hairy beast within.

     “I do not appreciate you manhandling my
wife,” he said with disapproval.

     “Chris, if you call this manhandling, then
I pity the poor fool who actually ever lays a hand on her,” Edward quipped.

     “He is dead, in fact,” Christopher said,
pouring himself more wine. “Where do you think she got the monkey?”

     The knights looked to Dustin in mild
surprise and she met their gaze, although her expression was downcast.

     “He was a street peddler and the monkey was
on a leash, doing tricks,” she said. “He started to beat the monkey and I could
not simply stand by and let him, so I… well, I tried to stop him and he was
very rude. In fact, he was so rude that I hit him and we fought.”

     Edward nodded in understanding. “And your
husband stepped in and killed him.”

     “Aye,” Dustin said, lowering her gaze, but
came back passionately. “I am truly sorry the man is dead, but he was cruel and
evil and I had to stop him.”

     Christopher could see that she was becoming
agitated. “We know, sweetheart, you were protecting God's creature,” he
pacified her. Then he glanced at the waterclock on the mantle. “Where in the
hell is our meal?”

     David was trying to stick his hand
underneath Dustin's hair to remove the monkey when there was another rap on the
door. Edward opened it and Marcus came into the room, holding the three puppies
against his chest with his good arm.

     “How long have you been back?” he demanded
of Dustin. “Do you know that these mongrels have been eating constantly? And
pissing all over my floor. I am not a….Jesus, what in the hell is that on your
neck?”

     “A monkey,” David said, moving closer to
the animal as Leeton pulled her hair back.

     “I can see that.” Marcus put the dogs down.
“What is it doing there?”

     “Nesting,” Christopher said. “How's your
hand?”

     “It throbs, but the physician gave me a
colwart and boiled willow concoction to ease the pain,” Marcus replied.

     The puppies began to whimper and yelp,
running about the room and the monkey suddenly came alive. It bit David and
scratched Dustin's neck as it literally flew onto a chair and then scrambled to
the top of a large wardrobe. The puppies continued to yelp and wriggle all over
the floor. Every time a puppy would yap, the monkey would scream as if it was
being stabbed and Dustin stood atop a chair as she tried to coax it down.

     Christopher, composed and regal as always,
shook his head with disbelief at the chaotic scene in his elegant antechamber.
Marcus could not hide his smile and broke into choked giggles every time Edward
looked at him. David, meanwhile, was nursing a substantial monkey bite on his
finger and wondering aloud if he was going to die from it.

     As havoc ensued in the room, the two maids
bustled into the chamber with several kitchen servants in tow, setting out the
nooning meal on the large oak table by the hearth. Dustin yelled at the
servants to close the door so the dogs wouldn't escape as Christopher and his
knights moved for the table, preparing to feast. Dud and Trent, the last two
knights to join the disorder, almost had the door slammed in their faces by a
servant eager to do Lady de Lohr's bidding.

     Dustin could see that the monkey was
frightened and decided to leave it be. Snatching the puppies, she handed them
over to the maids and asked that the women feed them and take them outside so
they wouldn't pee all over the polished floor. She would retain a couple of the
kitchen servants to serve the meal and, with an exhausted sigh she sat heavily
at her husband's left hand.

     Christopher was already well into his meal
of roast mutton, baked apples and stewed vegetables. The others, too, had dug
in with gusto and Dustin followed suit. She ate and listened to the men,
relieved to the core that Marcus and her husband were acting as if nothing was
amiss, as if the heavy bandages on Marcus' arm were non-existent. She wondered
if it was all an act, keeping up a front for the sake of Richard and his
vassals, but she didn't think so. Mayhap they would forgive and forget sooner
than she hoped. It was almost too good to ask for.

     She was so busy eating and listening to her
husband that she neglected to see the monkey scoot off the cabinet. The very
next thing she realized, it was sitting on the end of the table by Leeton and
Dud nearly had heart failure when he looked up and saw the little creature pick
an apple off his trencher. Dustin shushed the knights sternly when they started
to laugh and throw food at the monkey and, like small boys, they obeyed the
female command.  The money ended up sitting on the edge of Dud’s trencher and
ate everything but the meat.

     When the meal was over, Christopher got his
men moving for they all had bouts to fight, getting in the last bit of practice
before the tournament tomorrow. Dustin left the monkey in the apartments but
clutched the puppies as she followed the men down to the arena and seated
herself comfortably in the lists, much more excited to watch than she had been
earlier. As the dogs fumbled about and explored, she was riveted to the field
before her.

     She was surprised to see Marcus swing a
sword against Trent, obviously instructing the young man. He clutched the blade
in his left hand, maneuvering it as expertly as he did with his right. She knew
Marcus to be skilled, and she should have realized that his talents were
well-rounded. He had joked about learning to fight with his left hand, when she
didn't understand that he already knew how to fight with it.

     But as she watched him, a new set of fears
clutched at her; if he was still able to fight, would he then be fighting her
husband on the morrow? If not, did the prince know Marcus was still functional
and would he, in fact, force Marcus to fight, broken hand and all?

     She chewed her lip with worry, noticing
that the field was quickly filling with people. Knights on horseback with huge
jousting poles, squires, various servants and grooms all buzzing about the
field like busy insects. Christopher and his men were over to her far left
under a group of trees and she could see that the squires were helping them
with their armor and weapons.

     Christopher’s squire was a tall, well-built
blond-haired boy that she had seen but three or four times. He had never spoken
a word to her and she had been too busy with her own problems to notice him,
but she watched him now and the way he deftly handled her husband's
possessions, and made a mental note to at least discover the boy's name.

     Her husband's squire and the other squires,
for each knight had one, were experts at making themselves scarce, only around
when they were needed. A few of them looked to be about her age. She also
recognized some of the grooms that were handling the destriers and knew at
least two of them to be from Lioncross. Strange, she thought, how she never
noticed the people beyond the knights, people who obviously knew their jobs
because her husband’s small camp ran much better than most of the others, and
she decided that she would get to know who these competent vassals were.

     The stands were virtually empty except for
a few observers here and there. Christopher had posted three soldiers behind
her as guard, men who were chasing the puppies as much as watching over her.
Glancing about her at all of the color and activity, she noticed a young woman
sitting several yards away from her, almost to the opposite end of the stands.
Dustin studied the girl quickly; she was very pretty with long, straight
medium-brown hair. She was probably about her own age, sitting with a much
older woman as a companion. She made eye contact with her and turned away
quickly, but not before catching a slight smile on the girl's lips.

     David and Leeton were the first of
Christopher's knights to go against Baron Sedgewick's men. Dustin felt her
spirits lift as the two men skillfully handled their opponents, not intending
to defeat them at first since this was practice. The intent was to gain strength
and ease with repetition, then move in for the ‘kill.’ Dustin yelled
encouragement to her husband's men, applauding as loudly as a saloon wench when
first David and then Leeton sent their adversary to the ground. Caught up in
the excitement, she stood up and stomped her feet and hollered until she
realized she was making a fool of herself and, sheepishly, sat back down.

     Edward and Dud were preparing to take the
field when one of the soldiers assigned to her respectfully, and somewhat
fearfully, told her that one of the puppies had slipped away, underneath the
grandstand. In a panic, afraid the dog would hurt itself, she jumped up and ran
down the wooden stairs, hunting frantically for the little dog. Usually the
puppies yapped constantly, but she didn't hear a sound as she nosed in and
around the structure. The soldier who had informed her followed, concerned.

     “Are you looking for this?” it was a
pleasant, female voice.

     Dustin looked up and saw the girl from the
stands approaching her, a smile on her pretty face and clutching Alex in one
hand. Dustin nodded and smiled timidly.

     “Aye, I was,” she said. “Where did you find
him?”

     “He came over to me where I was sitting,”
she pointed up to the lists. “When I saw you leave in a hurry and bob around as
if you were looking for something, I knew immediately what had happened.”

     “Thank you for finding him,” Dustin said.
“His name is Alexander.”

     The girl rubbed noses with the pup just as
Dustin did.           “Hello, Alexander,” she said, then looked back up at
Dustin. “My name is Gabrielle.”

     Dustin nodded, feeling a bit nervous and
shy; she didn't make new friends very easily. “Dustin. Do you live here?”

     “What a pretty name,” Gabrielle said. “And
no, I do not live here. My husband is in the tournament tomorrow and we are
leaving shortly after. What about you? Do you live here?”

     “Not really,” Dustin said. “My husband is
in the tournament tomorrow, too, but I believe we are staying on for a while.”

     Gabrielle grinned. “I saw you cheering for
your husband, am I to assume?”

     Dustin nodded, smiling bashfully. “His men.
This is the first tournament I have ever been to.”