Page 45 of The Sun King's Noon

“You had no right!” Isolde yelled back. “Being the king’s sister does not mean you may?—”

Richard held up a hand. Truly, he should have this Godwyn executed for causing such strife. “Who is this squire’s master?”

A lady knight stepped forward—heavily freckled, with long ginger hair “Your Majesty.”

Richard faced her. “Lady Rowe, you have not taught your squire well.”

The knight went down on her knee, fist to chest. “The fault is mine.”

“One hundred laps of the main training yard. Yours to run, Lady Rowe. Today.”

Isolde’s eyes bulged. “That isn’t—my master didn’t do anything! It isn’t fair to punish her for?—”

“Be silent, Isolde, when the king speaks,” Lady Rowe snapped.

Isolde’s lips pressed shut.

Richard turned to Briony, who had been watching with clear smugness.

“And you, Briony.” Richard fought back a smile as alarm crossed the girl’s features. “Is it right for a princess to strike a squire? To strike a girl who wakes before dawn and trains until her hands bleed so that one day she might protect you? Is it right for a princess to slap her own people, sworn to her service, and brawl with them?”

Briony spluttered, flushing hard. “Well, I—I—” She quailed at Richard’s glare, and her lower lip trembled. “No.”

“No,” Richard agreed. “Now, you are the princess, and Dain, as our Lord Commander, functions as your master. So being, he shall also run a hundred laps alongside Lady Rowe.”

Dain winked and clasped his hands behind his back. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

Briony gasped. “But Dain has a bad knee! Brother, you know his knee is bad! You cannot make him—why, he shall be limping for days!”

“Then I offer an alternative. Princess Briony and Squire Isolde, you may take your masters’ punishments if you so wish.”

“Yes!” Isolde’s back went rigid. “I shall bear the laps! Never shall I allow my master to take my punishments!”

She would make a good knight, Richard noted absently, and the wry smile Lady Rowe wore suggested the same.

Briony went onto her tiptoes and used her shoulder to jostle Isolde aside. “And I shall bear Dain’s laps! For my honour as a princess stretches higher than any squire!”

“Very well,” Richard said. “You two shall also be bound together at the wrist throughout.”

The girls’ jaws dropped in unison. “Together?”

“Quite. You will learn to match your pace, communicate, and cooperate until the end.”

The girls sneered at each other with mutual loathing.

“Fine,” Isolde ground out.

“Fine,” Briony spat.

Richard nodded at Dain. “See it done, Lord Commander.”

“With pleasure.”

Briony’s one good eye widened. “You take pleasure in my suffering, Dain?”

“In discipline, lassie.” Dain ruffled her curls. “A rare and beautiful thing.”

He steered them away, with the procession of squires and knights trailing after.