Constantine took Dori by the arms and backed her to the bench and into a seated position so that if she was going to faint he wouldn’t have to tend catching her while he took a moment to think.
People in the ward. Could be anyone—envoys of the king, of Glayer Felsteppe. There could only be two groups of individuals with any reason whatsoever to congregate in the deserted ward within the broken walls: they had won Benningsgate or they were hunting Constantine.
He reached down automatically to feel for the hilt of his sword. Theodora had said ten or perhaps twenty people; Constantine could never hope to prevail against so many if they were indeed here to take him.
If they were here to claim Benningsgate, did Constantine care if he survived or not?
And what if Glayer Felsteppe was in the group?
He turned his head to look at Dori, still seated on the bench as Constantine had left her, but her eyes had followed him as he paced the oratory.
He stopped before her. “I’m going up.”
“What? Are you mad? They’ll see you!”
“There’s no helping it. They’ve either come to claim the estate, in which case we’ll be discovered eventually, or they’ve come seeking me. I’ll not be cut down in this oratory with my back to a wall, unable to escape.”
“What about me?”
“You may stay here if you wish,” he said, tightening his belt and removing his cloak—it would only hamper his movements. “I won’t divulge your presence.”
“Oh, soIcan be cut down withmyback to a wall when I’m discovered?”
Constantine stopped to look at her. “I must face this. Its’s my duty.”
She stood, swirling her own cloak from her shoulders. “Then I’m coming with you.”
“You don’t even have a weapon,” he argued.
“And whose fault is that?” she snapped with her hands on her hips, all of her earlier panic seeming to have vanished. “I looked over the ward yesterday and it was lost to the weeds, where you threw it. Have you any idea how difficult that was to fashion?”
“Well, I couldn’t allow you to keep it after you nearly spilled my guts with it, could I?”
“I should think it would come in rather handy now,” she said with a lift of her nose as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I suppose you’ll have to give me one of your knives.”
“You’re sincere in this, aren’t you?”
She only looked at him, her mouth set.
Constantine sighed and then limped to his satchel, in a corner by the stool. He bent at the waist to retrieve it and then held it by one hand as he reached inside and sorted carefully through the contents. He located the one he sought at last, the blade long, parchment thin, and tapered, meant for taking meat from bones, and Constantine thought the woman could do a lethal amount of damage with it before she was stopped, thinking once more of their first meeting in the ward with her handcrafted defense.
He dropped the satchel back to the floor and looked at her. “Stay behind me, out of sight in the corridor. Should I be overpowered, you might yet have an opportunity to escape.”
Her only answer was to hold out her hand, and Constantine placed the handle of the long, deadly-looking weapon there.
“Thank you,” she said in a haughty voice, dropping her arm to her side and concealing the blade within the folds of the voluminous apron. She looked back up at him. “Whenever you’re ready.”
He gave her a nod and walked to the door, bending to remove the stake from the floor.
“Constantine?” Her voice was just behind him.
He turned and looked down at her and she rose up on her toes suddenly, grasping his chin with the hand not holding his knife and pressed her mouth tightly to his. Her breath whistled in her nostrils as she leaned up and into him, and then she withdrew with the sort of breath one takes when coming out of water.
Dori cleared her throat delicately. “In case one or both of us are killed.” Then she reached past him for the door. She pulled it open, but it hit his boot, where he had failed to move.
He felt an odd heat on his ears. “That was inappropriate, Theodora,” he said gruffly.
She smiled up at him. “Have you any idea the number of times I’ve heard that exact phrase issued at me?”
