Page 23 of Knight School Chronicles Box Set

“ Y ou would have me hide in the alehouse?” Lady Evelina asked.

“Mistress Lucy said her husband is making deliveries and will not be there,” Amalia said.

As both women dismounted and handed their reins to the stable hand, Evelina remained skeptical. “If Master Nathan returns? I trust the alewife to keep my secret, but her husband will more than likely run straight to my father if we are discovered.”

“He will not return.” Amalia’s brows rose. “Unless you and Sir Gareth plan to meet overly long? I thought ’twas to be a simple conversation. Or were you hoping for something more?” her maid teased.

Of course, the thought had crossed her mind, but such things would be highly improper.

“I was not,” she lied.

Amalia barely held in her smile. “I will fetch your knight. Now go before you’re seen by too many.”

Earlier, Evelina had ridden into the village with Amalia, discussing where she and Sir Gareth could speak, when her friend rode ahead, telling her to meet by the well. Plenty had seen her there, but thankfully Amalia had a better plan than she. The alehouse it would be.

“Inside with you, my lady,” the alewife said the moment she appeared on the doorstep of the thatched-roofed structure.

To many, the house on the west edge of the village looked like the others—a timber frame and stone foundation with only the wooden sign designating it an alehouse.

Inside, hay was strewn on a wooden floor, the focal point of the main room a stone hearth, which had been lit to provide warmth and light given there were only small windows throughout the building.

Along one wall stood a long wooden bar, behind which ale barrels were stored.

In some ways it appeared like a small hall with its wooden tables, one of which was already set with two mugs atop it.

“A pitcher of ale for you both,” Mistress Lucy said. A pretty woman with short brown hair, not very much older than herself, the alewife nodded to another room off the main hall. “I will be in the kitchen with Amalia after they arrive. The doors open after midday meal, as you know, so...”

She trailed off. It would not do well for her and Sir Gareth to be here after patrons began to arrive. Lady Evelina understood.

“We wish only to speak a bit,” she said.

“As you should, my lady.” Mistress Lucy scurried to the door at the knock.

Watching her, knowing who was behind that door, Lady Evelina attempted to calm her rapidly beating heart.

Breathing deeply, she folded her hands together, hidden beneath the sleeves of her gown, and not for the first time, wished she had a mother to counsel her in such matters as this reaction to Sir Gareth.

So many of the recruits were handsome men. Nearly all had shown interest in her. But only this man made her heart beat as it did.

All eve she’d wondered, was he as handsome as she remembered? Would she feel the same way today as she had the first and second times they met?

As he stepped inside, her questions were all answered. This man was unlike the others.

Reading about Arthurian legend and the ideals of a chivalric knight was very different from seeing its embodiment stride toward you. It was as if Sir Gareth had brought with him all of the air she breathed when he entered the alehouse.

Suddenly the hall was awake. She was awake.

How long had I been sleeping?

Vaguely she heard Mistress Lucy and Amalia say something about being available if they were needed in the kitchen. Then suddenly, they were alone.

He did not hesitate.

Striding toward her, dressed in a surcoat of cream and deep blue and looking every bit the tourney champion, Sir Gareth gave her his arm.

Guiding her toward the table beside the hearth, he held her gown as Lady Evelina sat.

Taking his own seat across from her, he immediately lifted the mug of ale provided.

“Cheers,” he said, as she did the same. “To a better plan than I’d devised on finding a way for us to meet.”

She drank, wondering what his plan had been. When she asked that very question, Sir Gareth smiled. “I had none but speaking with you in the village. I’d not have dared to ask you to accompany me privately, unescorted.”

“I hope you do not think ill of me that my maid arranged this.”

“I’m certain I could not think ill of you for any reason, Lady Evelina.”

To her knowledge, Evelina had never been alone with a man in such an arranged way. She may have found herself unescorted with household knights, but nothing such as this.

“You should speak to my father. He will have many reasons to offer.” She’d meant it as a jest, but Sir Gareth did not take it as such. Instead, he grew serious.

“What reasons might he think ill of you?” he asked.

“I am a disappointment to him,” she said, more honest than she’d meant to be.

“Surely not,” he began before she stopped him.

“I did not know my mother but am told she was a docile woman. A fine hostess, quite adept at knitting and even singing to entertain guests. I am nothing like her,” Evelina finished.

“What are your interests, besides chess, my lady?”

She smiled. “Evelina, or Evie. I offer the use of my given name to all knights with whom I find myself alone in the alehouse,” she teased.

“Evie. And I, simply Gareth, if it pleases you.”

It did please her. “My interests, Gareth,” she said, testing out his name without the title, “are more academic than most women’s.

I was blessed with an extremely knowledgeable tutor and love to read, history most especially.

There are none I aspire to be like more than Lady Elara Wycliff, though I’m told often by my father she is very much an exception. ”

“To hold such a position?”

“Aye.”

“That you are nothing like your mother does not seem to me a disadvantage, Evie. There are many women who are highly valued for their knowledge, my own mother included. If your father does not see as much, he is a fool indeed.”

To hear him state this so bluntly surprised her. But it pleased Evelina too.

“Will you tell me about your mother?” he nudged.

Again, it was not a topic she discussed often.

Oddly, she trusted this man even though she knew him little.

“She disappeared when I was a babe. One day, she held me in her arms, rocked me to sleep according to her maid, who has since passed. The next morning, she was gone. My father searched for her for many years. There has been no hint of her since that night.”

“I am so sorry, Evie.”

“Thank you,” she said, as she’d done many times over the years. “I’ve reconciled it long ago.”

He was quiet for a moment. They both took a sip of ale.

“I do not believe one could ever truly reconcile such a thing,” he said finally.

She might agree, but Evelina preferred not to think of it that way. What’s done was done. She had long ago decided thinking of her mother, imagining what could have happened to her, accomplished little.

“Tell me of your mother. Your family,” she said, somewhat distracted by the way Gareth watched her so intently.

“My mother is an intelligent woman. And kind too. I’ve two older brothers, the eldest married with one child and a second coming soon. The other is a child himself, though older than me, but the most beloved by our father.”

“Surely your father does not love one more than the others.”

“He does.” Gareth did not seem bothered by the fact. “But I accepted that long ago. My brother makes all who are around him feel as if they’ve known him for a lifetime. He makes people laugh, as well.”

“Yet there is just one champion tourney player among you, is there not?”

She loved the way his eyes crinkled at the corners ever so slightly when he smiled. “I will admit neither of my brothers is very proficient at the joust.”

“Your father must be proud of your achievements?”

“Aye, he is. He knows my success is for our family, not for myself. I would win back the favor of the Claymore name, if not our lands and title.”

“If you and your men are successful, I would say such a thing will be very possible.”

“What do you know of the Guardians?”

Evelina told him of how her father suggested the abandoned Castle Blackwood for Knight School after the order was formed. How she played host to recruits, like him, and how little she knew of the missions the Guardians ran despite her father’s involvement.

“I will tell you all that I can,” he said.

“You will?”

“Aye. We are on the same side, are we not?”

“We are, but...” Evelina let her words hang. Until realizing one important fact. “How will you have the opportunity to do so? Tell me all that you can?”

“Tomorrow,” he said. “We will discover a meeting spot that does not put the alewife in jeopardy.”

She’d first asked the question, and would not take it back, but the idea of it—meeting again, perhaps more than once—was a dangerous undertaking, and likely he knew it as well as she.

“I know a spot,” she said. “One I’d considered for today but had no way to share it with you.”

“Tell me of it.”

“Behind the village chapel, there is a path leading toward a small lake. Before you reach the water’s edge, there is a garden.

’Tis now overgrown, its path moss-covered, mostly hidden and overgrown with flowers.

I discovered the spot as a child and spent much time there when I wished to get away from the confinement of Ashford Manor. ”

It was wrong, to meet in secret. Her father would be furious. Gareth’s time at the knight school would come to an early end if they were caught. However. . .

“The same time as today. If for any reason I am unable to get away, I will send word.”

“I will do the same. But...” She hesitated, not wanting to insult him but knowing he was new to Castle Blackwood as well. “Are there any you trust with such a message?”

He nodded. “There are two, aye.”

As she considered what else to say, the situation not one she’d ever found herself in, Evelina heard a door creak. For an awful moment, she thought they had been caught. But it was only Amalia and Lucy coming from the kitchen.

Their time together, for today at least, had come to an end.

Thankfully, they had tomorrow.