“She would not dare!” John said. “I will have her head!”
Which will, of course, solve everything, Hugh thought sarcastically. “Someone has been very clever in making Talis believe that he cannot so much as go near the girl, but I think, sir, that you are far more clever.”
“Yes, of course,” John said, then looked expectantly at Hugh. They had been together a long time and he didn’t feel like playing guessing games to find out what Hugh had in mind.
“Tell Talis that the girl’s beauty is causing havoc among the young men and you need her protected from them and you want Talis to do the job. He is to keep her near him and watch that no other men touch her.”
All John could do was blink at Hugh. “Beauty? Why, the girl is as pale as a fish’s belly. I cannot tell her from half of my other daugh—er, ah, half of the other girls around here.”
Hugh forced himself not to smile, for he’d just found out the answers to many of his questions. Talis was not John Hadley’s son, just as he’d suspected. “Talis does not know the girl is not beautiful. To him she is glorious.”
“I would be making a fool of myself if I were to say such to him,” John said. “The boy will laugh at me.”
“No, the boy will not laugh at you.” Hugh’s eyes lit up. “I will give you my best charger if I am wrong,” he said, speaking of a big roan horse he had bought two years back and John had always coveted.
“You have yourself a wager,” John said smugly.
“And what do I get if I am right?” Hugh asked, eyes twinkling, but when John raised one eyebrow, Hugh stepped back. “It is, of course, my privilege to serve you.” And with that, he turned away, thinking on why John Hadley did not have the loyalty or love of anyone.
34
No thank you,” Callie said to Talis with all the haughtiness she could muster. “I would rather go with Allen.”
The three of them were at a fair in the village, the usually placid streets now alive with merchants and acrobats and the cries of hawkers. People, rich and poor, were everywhere.
“I am to protect you,” Talis said, his back so rigid an oak tree was soft by comparison. “Lord John has told me I must protect you.”
“From what?” Callie snapped at him. “From unwanted boys like yourself?”
At that Allen perked up, straightening himself to stand taller. He was at least two years older than Talis, and he’d certainly had more experience with women than this young man. “Come, Callasandra,” he said, taking her arm.
“Do not call her that,” Talis said, pushing Allen’s arm away from her. “In fact, do not call her anything at all. Callie, you must come with me.”
She glared up at Talis. “I do not have to go with you now or ever. Come, Allen, we must go.”
Feeling that he was winning—and surely his extraordinary good looks were doing the job—Allen again took Callie’s arm.
“Unhand her!” Talis half shouted, causing some interest in the people near them.
Callie moved so Talis could not touch Allen’s arm, but she pulled away from the blond man as she confronted Talis. “You do not own me. You are not my father nor my brother. In fact, you are nothing at all to me. Nothing. You have no right to tell me to do anything. Now go away and leave us.”
With a great sweep of her skirts, Callie clutched Allen’s arm and started to walk away from Talis.
For a long moment, Talis stood where he was, staring after them, rage filling him. How dare she! he thought. How could she treat him like this? Especially after all he had been through to get them together? He had been doing everything Lady Alida had asked of him, having to put up with a bunch of mindless, giggling girls who wouldn’t let him train, wouldn’t let him study, but just demanded that he carry things for them. “This needle is awfully heavy,” one of them had said, then rolled her eyes at Talis in a way that he was sure was supposed to entice him.
All Talis yearned for were the days when he and Callie were together, the days when he didn’t have to be so damned polite all the time. With Callie he could be quiet if he wanted or talk for hours if he wanted. And, best of all, he didn’t have to wait on her, fetch for her, carry things for her, do a lot of really stupid things those overdressed peahens seemed to need from him.
Now, what he ought to do, he thought, was disobey Lord John’s orders and leave her here alone. If men made asses of themselves over her because of her…of her, well, because she was, in his opinion, by far the most beautiful creature in the world, then it was not his problem. Let that thin, no-shouldered, white-faced boy she was hanging onto take care of her.
But even as Talis thought this, he followed the two of them.
“Oh, Allen, how very clever of you,” Callie said, throwing back her head and laughing, her hair catching on her belt.
“Allow me,” Allen said, his hands going eagerly to Callie’s abundance of hair to untangle it.
But Talis was there first, his dagger drawn as though he meant to hack Allen’s hand off if he so much as touched Callie’s hair.
But Callie knew what he had in mind. “You touch my hair and you’ll be sorry,” she snapped at him.