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welcoming
smile.
    “Well, my lady?” Braedon asked. His midnight
eyes held a taunting message for Catherine alone. “What say you?
Shall we spend a few hours together at the fair? Or, after last
night, do you wish me permanently gone from Wortham?”
    “Whether you go or stay, Sir Braedon, must be
your own decision,” she responded in as haughty a voice as she
could manage when the mere sight of him roused the memory of his
passionate embrace. A faint smile teased the corners of his mouth.
Catherine keenly recalled the touch of that mouth on hers. It took
considerable strength of will to remind herself that she doubted
his honesty.
    “Is your declaration meant as a yes or a no?”
Braedon asked.
    “I would be remiss in my duties as hostess if
I turned away any guest,” she said. “Of course, you and your squire
are welcome to join Aldis and me.”
    “I thank you for your kindness, my lady.”
    She looked at him sharply, thinking she
detected mockery in his smooth tone, but his face had resumed its
sober expression.
    “Robert and I have been examining the melee
field,” Braedon said as the four of them rode on toward Wortham
village.
    “Have you, indeed?” She tried to sound
uninterested.
    “I prefer to test any area of combat before I
venture onto it in earnest,” he said.
    “I suppose it is always best to be
prepared.”
    “Are you prepared for combat, Lady
Catherine?” he asked.
    “If you mean, have I laid in supplies of
medicine and bandages, then, yes, I am well prepared,” she snapped
at him. “As any chatelaine would be. It is wrong of you to suggest
otherwise.”
    “My lady, it does seem to me that you are
greatly annoyed with me, and not just because I questioned your
arrangements for those who will be wounded during the melee,” he
said, looking innocent though his eyes were sparkling with
laughter.
    “I am irritated, Sir Braedon, to think a
guest in my father's home would take liberties with my person, but
to say I am annoyed would give too much importance to an incident
that is of little significance.” She thought she heard him chuckle,
but she refused to look at him again. She did not want to see him
laughing at her.
    Behind them on the narrow roadway Aldis
chattered away with Robert as if the two of them were the best of
friends. Her companion's ease with the squire made Catherine all
the more aware of how uncomfortable she was with Braedon. On the
one hand, she mistrusted him while, on the other hand, she admitted
to herself that she had taken entirely too much pleasure in his
kisses. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to repeat the
experience, or whether she wanted him to leave Wortham and never
return, so she could forget him – if she could forget him.
Her unsettled state of mind was most disturbing. She decided her
best course for the remainder of the morning was to direct all of
her attention to the fair.
    The road from the gates of Wortham Castle led
westward through cultivated fields to the village, which had grown
up beside a meandering river that supplied copious amounts of clean
water for drinking and irrigation. Just north of the village a
fallow field was serving as a temporary fair ground, with a bend in
the river as its western and northern boundary. On all sides the
rich farmland belonging to Wortham stretched to the very edges of
the forest, with the crops of oats and rye and the smaller patches
of beets, onions, cabbages, and other vegetables all displaying
softer shades of green than the darker trees beyond. The beneficent
sun shone in a cloudless sky.
    As they drew near to the fair they could see
a group of enterprising local boys, who had roped off an area
beside the road, where they promised to look after the horses of
the visiting nobles. Braedon tossed his reins to one of the boys
with an admonition to be cautious with the spirited mount. Then he
lifted his arms to Catherine to help her from her horse.
    With his strong hands at her waist she felt
like a thistle