Once a Knight Read Free Page A

shield. We were a silent group, given to sudden starts and furtive whispers, and when we broke into the cleared area around the castle, I heard the collective sigh of relief .
    Me, I took my new position as my lady’s defender seriously and peered around. As part of the castle defense, the forest that had once pressed close had been cleared away years ago. The massive outer walls of the castle wound along the bald curves of the hill above the sea. The village hugged the hollow in the inland valley below. Only immovable boulders remained in the green pasture grass between them, and I concentrated myattention there. Was it possible for someone to hide from sight among the clusters of rock? I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to find out. I started walking very close behind Lady Alisoun and Lady Edlyn, stepping on the backs of their heels just often enough to keep them walking briskly toward the lowered drawbridge. Lady Edlyn finally turned around and whacked my head, but I just smirked at her and trod even closer .
    Ivo and his men started down from the open castle gate, and when the villagers saw that, they began to break away, a few at a time. Fear had infected them; they wanted to get home and bar their doors. By the time we crossed the drawbridge, only the castle servants and the men-at-arms remained in our party. Stopping, Lady Alisoun waited until most of her people had passed. One last time, she called thanks to the villagers and lifted her hand in farewell—and something flew through the air and struck her .
    I didn’t see it, I just heard it. The twang, the thump as it pinned her against the wooden gate, the sound of material tearing as she fell backward, off balance, under the impact .
    What I did see was Sir Walter moving faster than I’d ever imagined he could. He reached Lady Alisoun’s side, grabbed her under the armpits and dragged her out of sight behind the gate, all the while shouting at the men-at-arms to shut the damned gate, damn it, shut the damned thing now .
    Then he dropped her in the grass and ran back around the gate and out of sight .
    Lady Alisoun lifted her forearm, and I stared in shock. An arrow had penetrated her dangling sleeve, piercing the material with its small metal tip. The fletching feathers, moving with the impetus of a longbow and unable to exit the hole, had jerked her off herfeet. Now the arrow still dangled, unbalanced, tip on one side of her sleeve, fletching on the other .
    Her gaze met mine, and she blinked at me. I’d never seen her bewildered before, and I thought…well, I don’t know what I thought. It just seemed someone ought to take care of her for a change. So I knelt, slid my arm underneath her head and placed it in my lap .
    It probably wasn’t comfortable. I was dreadfully bony then, but she sighed and closed her eyes as if she found comfort in my touch. “I do believe someone tried to shoot me,” she said. The words sounded calm, but her voice shook .
    By now, the women had crowded around Lady Alisoun and the men had returned with Sir Walter .
    She opened her eyes, and it was clear to me that Lady Alisoun had finished with her moment of weakness. Pinning Sir Walter with her gaze, she asked, “Are the villagers under attack? ”
    â€œ Nay, my lady.” Sir Walter lifted her arm and jerked the arrow free. “Only one arrow was shot, and it was shot at you .”
    Lifting it, he showed the crowd. As if they’d rehearsed, the women started crying in unison, and the men wheeled and stomped like great warhorses anxious for battle .
    Well pleased with the scene his words had caused, Sir Walter pulled his soldiers away to search for the culprit. Lady Alisoun’s own maid pushed her way through the crowd and dropped to her knees beside us. She was a handsome woman, one who’d come to the castle from another one of Lady Alisoun’s holdings when Lady Alisoun wished to train Heath for the position of