Knights by Linda Lael Miller

his head, and drank until the great hall rocked with the other men’s shouts of encouragement. The foremost of these, of course, was Gloriana’s own untried husband, the now-drunken Dane St. Gregory, fifth baron of Kenbrook.
    “They have corrupted Edward!” Gloriana burst out, gathering her skirts to plunge into the mob and set matters aright.
    The friar had risen from his bench while she was watching Edward’s descent into dishonor, and he stopped Gloriana by linking his arm through hers. She would have stumbled if the priest hadn’t taken a firmer hold.
    “There is naught you can do, child,” Cradoc told her in the quiet voice that had guided her through Latin and French, mathematics and archery, Greek history and the basics of herbal medicine. “Go to your chambers, if you would please your aged tutor, and remain there until the bells summon you to morning mass.”
    Gloriana opened her mouth, then closed it again. Dane’s mug was refilled from the sloshing tip of a pewter pitcher, along with Edward’s and Master Eigg’s. She had engaged in enough battles for one day and had already learned that there was no reasoning with Kenbrook or his elder brother, Lord Hadleigh.Edward, in his youthful foolery, was already beyond help, for that night, at least.
    For a long moment, Gloriana simply stood there on the dais, watching as the contest of idiots went on. Only when Dane felt her gaze and raised his tankard to her in an impudent toast did she remove herself from the hall.
    Judith was waiting in the bedchamber. She had lighted the lamps, turned back the covers, and poured tepid water into a basin. After helping Gloriana out of her gown, the young girl bobbed her head.
    “May I go now, milady?”
    Although Gloriana had offered the girl a couch upon which to sleep, she insisted on returning to the kitchen, where she, like many of the other household servants, slept on a pallet in front of the fire.
    “Stay a moment, please,” said Gloriana, sitting before her mirror and taking up the ivory comb Edwenna had bought for her long ago in London Town. “I have a question to ask.”
    “Yes, milady?” Judith chirped, sounding somewhat worried and bobbing again.
    “If I were to leave Hadleigh Castle and live in my father’s house in the village, would you go along and attend me?”
    Judith fidgeted, shifting from one foot to the other. Her kirtle, though clean, was made of roughly woven wool, and her straggly brown hair fell, unbound, to her waist. “Leave Hadleigh Castle, milady? But they’d never let you do that, not without Lord Kenbrook, and he’s got a house of his own, hasn’t he?”
    “I am going,” Gloriana said purposefully. “Without Lord Kenbrook or his permission.”
    Judith paled visibly in the flickering glow of the fire and murmured some pagan exclamation before saying,“But, milady, you can’t go leaving his lordship’s keep just because that’s what you want to do!”
    “Very well,” Gloriana replied, with a sniff. “Never mind. You may stay here, Judith, and sleep with the hounds and the other servants in the kitchen. Of course in my house, you would have had a room of your own, with a bed you needn’t have shared—”
    The girl’s eyes went wide. “A lot of good that would be,” she blurted out, “when Lord Kenbrook comes to drag us back here by our hair!”
    Gloriana sighed. “I should put an arrow through Kenbrook’s heart if he tried such a thing.”
    Judith’s eyes grew larger still. “They’d hang you by the neck, lady or no, if you did such as that.”
    “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Judith,” Gloriana snapped, at the end of her patience. “I was not speaking literally. I was merely trying to make a point. Will you go with me or not?”
    Judith considered, swallowing visibly and scratching once or twice. “I’ll go if you wish it, milady. But you watch—we’ll both be tossed into the abbey till the end of our days when this is over, just like Lady Hadleigh.”
    The