Page 44 of The Knight's Pledge
Winnie raised her eyes then and her gaze went directly to Lucan’s across the way, as if she’d known he’d been there all the while. She touched Kit’s shoulder and nodded in Lucan’s direction before walking toward him.
“Good day, Winnie,” he said.
She signaled with one fist and arm, waited expectantly, thenpointed to him.
“Is that goodday?” he asked.
Winnie smiled.
“Well, then”—Lucan imitated themotion—“again.”
She seemed pleased, and tucked her hand into Lucan’s elbow, drawing him deeper into the market. They were passing Kit Katey again, and now Gorman was there, handing the little mistress of the basket a coin while the Asian woman still knelt in the dirt in rapturous adoration of the animal that was now apparently hers.
“It will be difficult to travel with a kitten,” Lucan remarked to Winnie as they moved on down through the market.
Winnie shook her head. A slash of hand, two forked fingers astride the side of her palm. She pointed toward the White Swan, the hanging sign just visible above thecrowds’ heads.
“Ah, I thinkI understand.”
She pulled him to a stop before a stall boasting every manner of dried vegetation imaginable to Lucan. Her gaze roved over the baskets and bundles, reaching out occasionally to lift a stem or broken-off piece to her nose. She nodded to herself and then poked Lucan in the ribs before tapping a pair of bundles then pressing on the boot of his wounded foot lightly with her own toes.
“I need this?”
Winnie nodded, her lips set. She made a signal with her hand, but Lucan didn’t knowwhat it meant.
He looked up at the stall keeper with a grin. “I’ll take those, I suppose.” He handed over a coin and Winnie selected her purchases, tucking them into her sleeve.
He glanced back down the path and saw Gorman and Kit Katey again standing close to each other, each admiring the woman’s new purchase, strokingits tiny head.
A sharp, two-note whistle raced over their heads, and Winnie’s arm tensed beneath Lucan’s. Gorman and Kit immediately raised their heads, Dana suddenly towering over them; Bob and Effie materialized out of the oblivious crowd—all their faces turned towardthe White Swan.
Gorman left Kit to join Effie in the street, their hands reaching out and clasping together as they made their way toward Lucan and Winnie.
“It’s Chumley,” Effie advised Lucan, and her eyes were serious when her gaze met his.
Lucan turned with the old woman and joined the party as they weaved their way against the current of the market day crowd back toward the inn. He spied James and Gilboeahead of them.
Here, Lucan thought, he would at last find out what the group had been actually waiting in the village for.
What he had been waiting for.
But when he ducked into the White Swan’s bright exterior, he was disappointed and somewhat puzzled at the sight that greeted him.
“Rolf?”
Darlyrede’s steward paid Lucan no mind, his eyes fixed on Gorman who had come to a solid halt just inside the door. Gorman’s chest heaved as he stared across the space separating him from his father.
“Is it done?”Gorman rasped.
Rolf nodded, his familiar face strangely frozen inside his beard, a pained, intense expression flickering in his eyes.
“Gone.” Rolf’s usually melodic voice was hoarse. “It’s over, son.”
Gorman dropped Effie’s hand and met his father in the middle of the common room floor in a colliding embrace. A muffled sob came from Gorman where his face was hidden in his shorterfather’s neck.
“Aye, aye,” Rolf rasped. “It’s alright. It’s alright, now. You’ll neversee it again.”
Lucan’s stomach turned at the tender scene between the two men he’d come to think of as stern and stalwart, but it was from concern and alarm rather than disgust.
