Page 10 of Hidden Dragons

“It is more than enough,” Robert assured her. “Thank you for thinking of our comfort.”

She smiled and went back to eating as the men wrestled over dividing up the remainder of the stew. There was a small tussle, but they seemed to recall their surroundings before it could escalate into anything bigger. Isabelle hid her smile, bending her head to eat.

The more she was around these knights, the more she liked them. She was beginning to see them as individuals. As men, with all the idiosyncrasies of other people. They were real to her in a way they hadn’t been before.

She knew that Bear—Sir Bernard—kept many of his thoughts to himself, but he thought deeply. She saw evidence that Sir Robert had deep respect for the quieter man and often sought his counsel before deciding on a course of action. Sir Robert was also very sharp-witted and although glib of tongue, he was kind-hearted.

The dragons too, were fascinating individuals. Isabelle could see the love and respect between the male and female dragon, and the deep bond they shared with their knights. Each respected the other, and the quartet was a highly-functioning unit, aligned in purpose and matched in skills and temperament.

She never would have guessed anything like that about knights and their dragons before meeting these four. She felt blessed to have crossed their path, and doubly blessed by the small things they were doing for her around the homestead that would make the long, cold winter so much easier to bear.

After dinner, they coaxed her to play a few tunes with Bear. They knew a few common songs and were able to do passable duets while Robert hummed along, smiling and tapping his foot.

The dragons moved closer to listen, much to Isabelle’s surprise. She saw the sky blue of Lady Tildeth’s hide out her back window and realized Sir Growloranth had been watching from the side of the house for some time when he opened his eye and winked at her through the side window. If he hadn’t moved, she would not have been able to see him against the dark night outside. He was just that stealthy.

Sadly, the evening had come to an end when she couldn’t contain a yawn. The men noticed right away and made their departure. It was kind of them to consider the fact that she’d had a very long day, but in a way, she would rather have spent more time enjoying their company.

As she washed the few dishes and set them to dry, she thought of the lovely evening they had spent together. Perhaps they would have another dinner like this tomorrow night. She could but hope. It was so rare for her to have guests—and never had she had such amusing guests.

In fact, she hadn’t had this much fun since her mother had died. That thought brought to mind all she had lost when her mother had passed, and she couldn’t help the tears that clogged her throat and fell into the dishwater.

“She is crying again,”Growloranth grumbled to the knights as if it was their fault.

They were all back in the barn except the well camouflaged male dragon. He was on guard duty, watching from the shadows outside Isabelle’s house. He could easily see into her window and was reporting her movements back to the men in the barn.

“I don’t like how alone she is,”Tildeth observed, compassion in her tone.

“We cannot leave her here like this,”Growloranth stated.

“We also can’t force her to go,”Robert reminded them all.“We will have to work on convincing her. She has memories here that are obviously hard for her to let go of.”

“Sometimes it’s better to leave the memories behind and begin new ones,”Growloranth said in a subdued tone.

Robert remembered that dragons went off on their own to mourn, most of the time, after losing their knight. Growloranth and Tildeth had both lost their first knights and spent time in the mountains, grieving. They had not stayed in the Lair where their former knights had lived and worked. In fact, when they came back, they did not even go to that Lair, but instead, asked for assignment to the Border Lair after choosing their new knight partners.

“Dragons can be far smarter than humans when it comes to such things,”Robert observed.

“This place is all she knows,”Bear put in.“She does not think she has any alternative, and she fears leaving the known behind for the unknown.”

Robert was impressed with Bear’s grasp of the situation. He nodded at his fighting partner as they settled down for the night in the barn. Growloranth would be on watch outside in the shadows that were his element.

“Maybe we can show her a little bit of what we can offer her at the Lair,”Robert mused.“After we complete our mission, we could invite her for a visit, if we haven’t convinced her by then.”

The others agreed and conversation drew to a close for the night as Tildeth and the knights fell asleep. Growloranth would wake them if anything happened.

A few hours later, in the deepest part of the night, Growloranth’s voice sounded in Robert’s mind, waking him instantly.

“A man is coming up the path in haste.”

“I’ll be there in a minute.”Robert promised, already slipping his sword and dagger from their scabbards as he made his way through the dark barn.

“He just rushed right past me,”Growloranth reported.“Didn’t even look in my direction. He’s knocking on Isabelle’s door.”

Robert could hear the loud raps on the wooden door, followed by the fellow speaking loudly enough to be heard in the barn and beyond.

“Isabelle, you’ve got to come. Mantell’s prize bull is sick something awful. Mantell’s stockman tol’ me to come get you.”

Robert reached the shadows by the door to the barn in time to see Isabelle answer her door. She was wearing her cloak and had a large bag slung across her body.

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