Chapter 15
Without saying much of anything to each other, Tristan and I rode back to the castle. After we entered the courtyard, several people came out to stare at me and to con-gratulate Tristan on rescuing me. They seemed genu-inely impressed that Tristan was in one piece and I wasn’t weeping.
They insisted that we stay for dinner at the castle so we could tell the tale of our escape. Tristan accepted, even though I was already shaking my head no. He twisted his head around to face me. “The horse needs to rest so we might as well stay. Don’t worry, I’ll tell the story.” He dismounted, ignoring my protests. “You’ll never eat a better meal than at the king’s table. It’s an honor to be asked.”
After I dismounted, he took the horse’s reins in one hand, my arm in the other, and walked toward the stable. “Besides, I still need to finish up with the armory and you’re coming with me this time. I’m not letting you out of my sight again.”
I walked beside him feeling like an errant child. “I wasn’t planning on trying to contact the Black Knight again.”
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“Good,” he said with false cheerfulness. “I’m glad it only takes you one abduction to figure out who your enemies are.”
I didn’t argue the point. Instead I said, “I can’t tell everyone at dinner what happened between the Black Knight and me. I can’t let people know I tried to steal his enchantment. He’ll find out and be angry about it.” Tristan only shrugged. “Well, I wasn’t planning on telling the truth. There’s not much of a good story to that, is there?”
“Then just leave me out of it all together.” He smirked at me, enjoying my discomfort. “That would be hard to do since you are the main point of the story, but don’t worry, you can get up afterward and give a rebuttal. Tell them all how you saved me.”
“I can’t lie—,” I started, but then realized if the enchantments had actually switched, I could.
Tristan shrugged again. “Everyone gives their own glorious account of their deeds at the king’s table. This is like the TV of the Middle Ages. They don’t care about it being true as much as they care about it being exciting—” Tristan looked at me, understanding filling his eyes. “Oh, you mean in case the Black Knight is there.
Good point. For all we know he’s one of the men in King Roderick’s court.”
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I stopped walking and Tristan turned to see why. The horse swished his head impatiently but I couldn’t take another step. I let out a nervous breath. “The sky is purple.”
Tristan’s gaze shot upward. He looked from one end of the sky to the other. “No, it’s not.” I didn’t feel anything. I touched my tongue. “Nothing happened.”
Tristan tilted his head, examining me. “Savannah, you know I’m not the Black Knight. You saw us together.” I nearly told Tristan about my lying-equals-toads-and-other-gross-things-in-my-mouth enchantment, but stopped myself. That was as good as telling him I’d switched enchantments with the Black Knight and if he knew that, he might be able to learn how I’d done the rest. I couldn’t let him know that if he kissed me he could go home.
“Right . . . ,” I said, “I know you’re not the Black Knight. I was just . . . well . . .” The horse had decided to find something to eat and he nuzzled my satchel. I pushed his head away. People were milling all around the courtyard so I stepped close to Tristan. On my tiptoes, I put my lips to his ear and whispered, “I did take the Black Knight’s enchantment. He’s not invincible. I am.”
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Tristan whispered back to me, but I could tell he was just humoring me. “Because the sky is purple?”
“If you don’t believe me, I’ll prove it to you.” Tristan folded his arms and regarded me with amused interest. “Okay.”
“Try to hit me.”
He rolled his eyes and pulled the horse forward toward the stables. “As tempting as that offer is, no.” I followed after him. “Why not? It won’t hurt me, you’ll see.”
“Call me old-fashioned. I don’t hit girls.”
“I’m asking you to.”
He shook his head and laughed. “You know, after what you’ve put me through during the last eight months, you really shouldn’t push your luck.” Which was when I knew I was right not to tell him anything about switching enchantments.
• • •
Our trip to the armory was noisy, boring, and cost most of the things I’d brought with me. I sat on a hard wooden bench by the door while Tristan stood, arms out like a scarecrow, having his measurements taken. The armorer walked around Tristan holding up a piece of string to different parts of his body, and then yelling out 234/431
numbers to his assistant. In between the numbers, the armorer kept throwing out little compliments like,
“You’re nicely tall, just as a well-bred lad should be.” I fluttered my eyelashes at Tristan and mouthed the words “well bred.” He rolled his eyes, then pretended he didn’t see me.
When he’d finally finished with his measurements, we walked slowly across the castle grounds. Tristan didn’t take my arm like he had before, and I found that I missed it. The space between us seemed too large somehow. My hands swung awkwardly at my sides.
They hadn’t rung the bell for dinner yet but it wouldn’t be long. The sun wasn’t too far away from setting. “So what should we do until dinner, Monsieur Well Bred?”
He cast me the barest of glances. “You are so twenty-first century.”
“And that’s a good thing.”
He didn’t answer, which made me think he’d meant to insult me. I tilted my chin down. “Do you like that whole property-rights view of women? We should keep in our place and all that?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“What then? You think the peasant look is hot? After all, on their diet of porridge, they’re naturally as skinny as super-models.”
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He slid me an exasperated glance. “See, that is exactly what I mean. I never realized how sarcastic modern girls were until I came here. No one back home even tries to be ladylike or demure.”
“I might if I knew what demure meant.”
“No, you wouldn’t.”
How could I argue about it when I didn’t know what the word meant? This is why it totally sucks to argue with smart people. You’d think after all my years of living with Jane I would have picked up a huge vocabulary, but no. I took several steps, prickled by this fact, and planned to come up with a really good comeback just as soon as I got hold of a dictionary.
Tristan headed to the orchards, and the noise of the castle yard slowly faded behind us as we walked through the trees. Layers of fallen white blossoms covered the ground so that they almost looked like snow.
I could have changed the subject. The setting was so relaxing that I didn’t want to argue, but still, as we strolled among the trees I said, “Modern girls have their own benefits. We may be sarcastic but we’re clean.” A smile picked up the corner of his lips. “Modern girls don’t come with dowries.”
I put my hand out, brushing my fingers against low-hanging branches that we passed. “Maybe, but modern girls have access to supermarkets for cooking. Besides, 236/431
what are your chances of getting a girl with a decent dowry?”
Our conversation died because Princess Margaret and another young woman, probably a lady-in-waiting, came through the trees on the path heading toward us. The princess wore a different dress than I’d seen her in when I was Cinderella, but her elegant looks and her arrogance were still the same.
In the moment before she saw us, the princess’s face flashed with anger. She looked at the woman walking beside her, but her voice, low and piercing, carried down the lane to us. “He can send all the gifts he likes, it is not his place to make me wait. I shan’t wear it if he thinks so ill of me that he asks for a meeting and then doesn’t come.” She pulled a ring off her finger, gripped it in her palm, then looked up and saw us. Her eyes flew open in surprise and it took her several steps to compose her expression back into a hard mask of self-importance.