After dinner he'd gone off with her father. Anne would have left them, but her father had ordered her to accompany them to the mews where he had some hawks to show the Peregrine. Anne and a couple of her ladies had followed the men, not speaking or being spoken to.
It was at the mews that the man had pulled her behind a shed and kissed her. Perhaps it was because she was so full of anger that at first she kissed him back, but it didn't take long for her to recover her senses. She'd raised her knee and brought it up between his legs. He had pushed her away from him, his face furious. Anne didn't want him to know how much he frightened her, so she had stood her ground.
He didn't say anything to her for a moment, then said, "Go back to your father," and he turned and left her. She had to admit that his reaction wasn't what she would have expected, but she was pleased she had made him so angry. Perhaps he would drop the suit for her hand.
"I shall appear in disguise," Tearle was saying.
"In disguise?"
"Yes, as… as the Black Knight. Can you find armor for me and have it painted black? I will challenge the men who have the most points so far."
"That will be Colbrand and this Peregrine. No one seems able to touch them."
Tearle remembered the way Zared looked at Colbrand each time the man came within sight of her and felt a surge of strength flow through him. "I will beat them," he said softly. "For you I will beat Severn, and for myself I will make Colbrand sorry he was born."
Anne smiled at him. "I will find the armor. Come to the garden tonight at midnight, and I will see that you have what you need. And I will see that all is arranged with my father. He will like a mystery knight to act as his champion."
Tearle rose, his wounds feeling much better. "And what if he gives you to me as my prize?"
Anne, sitting on the edge of the bed, looked up at him. He was wearing only the smallest piece of white linen, and as he moved muscles played under his skin. "I would accept," she said softly.
He turned to look at her. She was so lovely, so perfectly featured, and he knew her dowry would be enormous. Uniting the Marshalls and the Howards would be a very wise thing to do, and he knew his brother would heartily approve the match. Oliver could use Anne's dowry to buy more weapons to try to destroy the Peregrines.
As he looked at Anne's face, at her perfect loveliness, he began to see Zared's face, her prettiness nothing to compare with Anne's beauty, but there was an innocence to Zared that Anne could never have. Tearle remembered the look on Zared's face when she'd tried on one of the gloves. There was a world of new and different things he'd like to show Zared.
Perhaps it was her lack of experience that fascinated him, he thought. Perhaps because he had seen and done so much in his years on earth, Zared's freshness was a delight to him. Even the open, adoring way she looked at Colbrand intrigued him. Anne, and women like her, who were used to courts full of handsome men, would never show their feelings so openly. Tearle knew that if Anne loved a man she would not tell him so unless it was suitable for her to do so. But Zared, Tearle thought, smiling—if Zared loved a man, she'd protect him with her life.
"Then I should be most honored," Tearle said, smiling as he lied.
Anne smiled, too, knowing he lied. "Get dressed. I will leave first so no one sees me alone with a half-dressed man—even if you are old enough to be my father."
Tearle smiled at her knowingly. He was pleased to have her look at him as a man. After Zared, it was pleasant to have any woman look at him. "At midnight, then," he said as she reached the door.
She nodded and left the room.
Zared left the tournament grounds more confused than ever. Too many things were happening to her. She kept remembering—feeling—the Howard man on top of her as the horse stomped on him. She could feel the blows through his body to hers. Yet later he had refused any help from her.
Had he saved her for some ulterior reason? Did he want to unite the Peregrines and the Howards? If his brother had found papers proving the Peregrines owned the land held by the Howards, Oliver Howard would merely have burned the papers. He wouldn't need to send his brother to join the two families.
She put her hands to her ears as though to stop the raging thoughts. What did the man want from her? Why didn't he just go away and leave her to herself and to… to Colbrand?
At the thought of the beautiful man Zared decided to go to his tent. Perhaps the sight of the blond man would make her forget the dark one who was beginning to haunt her.
But at Colbrand's tent she was greeted with abuse from Jamie, his squire.
"Do you come to gloat?" he sneered at her.
"No, I…" What? sh
e thought. Just wanted to see Colbrand?
"Your brother had luck on his side. My master's horse slipped."
"It did not. Severn is just a better fighter, that's all."
"He is better at naught than my master!" Jamie shouted. "My master fights better. He is a better man. Colbrand will win in the end, for he will win the Lady Anne."
Zared was too upset by the day's events to control her tongue. "My brother is to marry Lady Anne."