Page 352 of Historical Hotties
“Your friend seems very nice,” she called up to Bastian. “Have you been friends for a long time?”
Bastian slowed his horse to allow the carriage to catch up. He rode alongside, glancing down at his wife.
“We fostered together,” he said, his gaze moving from her to the road to the trees surrounding them and then back again. It was evident that he was on the alert, watching for danger. “Wellesbourne and I have shared many an adventure together. He was in France for a time several years ago but was called home when his father became ill. He has been in England ever since, which is a pity. The man is excellent with a sword. I have missed it.”
Gisella smiled up at him, the parasol shading half of her face from the sun and giving her a rather glowing, ethereal appearance. “But surely you fight battles single-handedly,” she teased him. “You are, after all, the Beast. According to the rumors I have heard, you wield a sword of fire and shoot lightning from your nostrils. Isn’t that how you subdued the French at Orleans and then at Rouen?”
He smirked at her, shaking his head reproachfully. “Vous ridicule petit renard,” he muttered.You silly little fox.
Gisella pretended to be indignant. “Je ne suis pas stupide,” she insisted. “Si vous allez me insulter, puis le faire dans une langue que je ne comprends pas.” I am not silly! If you are going to insult me, then do it in a language I cannot understand!
Bastian chuckled at her. “Very well,” he said. “What language do you not understand?”
Gisella cocked her head, feigning thoughtfulness. “I am sure I understand more than you do.”
His eyebrows lifted mockingly. “Is that so?” he said. “I will tease you in Italian, then.”
“I can read, write, and speak it.”
He frowned. “Spanish?”
“The same.”
Now, he scowled. “Latin?”
She sighed, taunting him. “Now you are boring me,” she said. “I speak it as well as any priest.”
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
“My, but you are a saucy bit of baggage.”
She grinned brightly at him and he couldn’t help but smile back, laughing softly as he shook his head in resignation. His wife was indeed more educated than he was but he wasn’t sorry about it in the least. He rather liked her brilliance.
His gaze returned to the road, the surroundings, and he noticed that the road was fairly vacant now for as far as he could see, which was at least a half mile ahead. Casting his wife a wink, as sweet a farewell as he could manage, he spurred his warhorse to the front of the party because an oddly vacant road made him nervous. Turning around to Gannon and Lucas, bringing up the rear, he emitted a sharp whistle between his teeth and, using hand gestures, had Gannon ride up next to the carriage while Lucas brought up the rear.
The knights spread out in formation because Bastian was edgy about the stretch of road they were moving in. The hedgerows were very high, the foliage tight, and the road narrow as it dipped downhill for a stretch before rising back up again. Bastian could see water pooling down at the deepest point in the road.
The greenery had grown up all around them at this point, creating a heavy green canopy overhead with the sunlight streaming through. It was also incredibly steamy and the women took to fanning themselves with delicate wooden fans that Aunt Beatrice had provided them for the journey. If the ladies noticed the alert of the knights, they didn’t say anything. They kept quiet, seated side by side in the carriage and enjoying the journey.
Bastian was glad the women didn’t feel the concern that he did. He couldn’t explain his uneasiness other than a stretch in the road like this, heavily shrouded and vacant, would be the perfect place for an ambush. There had been so much traffic heading out of London that he was surprised to see this stretch so vacant. He had the carriage driver pick up the pace and they began to move more quickly through the unnerving stretch of road. The chargers were trotting, kicking up clods of earth and eventually splashing through the water that had gathered on the lowest part of the road. As they began to ascend the slightincline, the bushes around them suddenly became alive and men dressed in rags jumped out, leveling crude bows and arrows at them.
Sparrow shrieked as men jumped out at them, pointing sharp arrows at their heads. Gisella didn’t utter a sound but she was terrified, clutching Sparrow as she looked around at all of the bandits– there were at least ten or twelve of them, all of them pointing arrows at the women and carriage driver. They made no move to point the weapons at the knights, knowing that their crudely-made arrows wouldn’t have a chance against the armor. But they would pierce unprotected female flesh.
The entire party came to a halt as the men with the arrows drew in closer, threatening the women in the carriage. Bastian, at the head of the group, didn’t move a muscle for fear that some fool would take it as a challenge and let the arrows fly. He gazed steadily at a man several feet in front of him who wasn’t holding a bow and arrow. It was that man who seemed to be in charge as he smiled rather lasciviously at the women.
“Good lords and ladies,” he said gallantly, bowing with exaggeration. “My apologies for interrupting your journey, but we were wondering if you would be willing to donate your money and jewels to our cause? We would be happy to take all you can give.”
Bastian remained cool. “You’ll get nothing,” he said flatly. “Just looking at you, I can see that you are not a bright man but this foolish action will be the worst action you have ever committed. It will more than likely be the last thing you remember on this earth and I will tell you why– your arrows cannot penetrate my armor and the second you let one of those things fly, I will have my broadsword out and your head will be rolling in the dirt before you can take another breath. If you do not believe me, try it and see what happens.”
The outlaw’s smile vanished unnaturally fast. “You have a bold tongue.”
“That is not the only thing that is bold.”
The outlaw’s eyebrows lifted and he began to laugh. The other bandits took up the sound and soon, most of them were chuckling. The outlaw in charge focused intently on Bastian.
“Then I suppose I should just let you go,” he said. “Just like that?”
