Page 27 of Picking Up the Gauntlet

“Nay!” said Corbett, raising his gloved hand in the air. “Now, it’s a temporary thing, so it doesn’t really matter. I am only doing it so the rest of the castle will accept him in this new position.” Corbett turned and walked away, looking back over his shoulder. “Let the others unload your things, Armstrong. If you’re sitting up at the dais you can’t be arriving late, so make sure you are there before the meal begins.”

“Aye, my lord,” said Jonathon with a nod. When he looked over to Avery, his brother’s jaw dropped open in surprise. Then he looked over to Rook who was smirking at his sister. When his gaze met Raven’s, a shiver went up his spine. She honestly looked as if she wanted to kill him.

“Can I accompany you to the great hall, my lady?” Jonathon held out his arm.

“Get out of my way, you cur!” She pushed away his arm and stormed past him. “You’re going to make me look like the castle fool.”

When she walked away, Rook looked over to Jonathon and shrugged. “Mayhap my father has a reason for his madness, I don’t really know. But even if he doesn’t, it will be amusing to watch my sister’s reactions with you at her side at the dais. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.” Rook chuckled and walked away.

“Are you really going to sit up at the dais with the nobles?” asked Avery. “Above the salt?” He sounded very jealous.

“I have no choice. It is what Lord Corbett wants.”

“I wish it were me instead. I’d love to eat the food of the nobles and have white bread instead of brown.”

The nobles ate food that the others didn’t. One of the prime things being white bread, and another being that they had ornate cellars filled with salt on the table with which to season their food. These things were expensive and not given to the commoners or anyone who didn’t sit at the dais.

“I wish it were you as well,” mumbled Jonathon, handing his brother a travel bag with tools that he’d removed from his horse. He slipped another bag over his shoulder. A groom ran out from the stables to take care of their horses.

Jonathon headed to the smithy to change back into the uncomfortable clothes of a castle guard, hating every minute of this charade. Since Raven’s disposition changed so quickly, he had the feeling that everything was about to go downhill from here and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

* * *

By the time Raven washed up and made her way back to the great hall with Lark, Jonathon was already in the great hall dressed like a guard again, standing at the end of the dais waiting for her. She stopped in her tracks, her hands balling into fists, and with her teeth clenched. This wasn’t right. Her father and brother were only doing this to make a fool out of her, and she didn’t like it.

“Cousin, why are ye so upset?” asked Lark.

“That man has got to go.”

“Oh, ye mean Jonathon? What’s the matter with him? Didna ye have a good time at his family’s home in town today?”

She let out a deep sigh, her eyes still fastened to Jonathon. Even though he shouldn’t be wearing the castle’s crest, he did look handsome with it on his chest.

“Actually, I enjoyed that part very much,” Raven admitted. “His family was so nice to me. Their food was naught but simple pottage and brown bread, but it was comforting eating with them, for some reason. They all seemed so... happy.”

“Then why are ye so angry?” asked Lark.

She turned her eyes away from Jonathon and looked directly at her cousin. “It’s fine for me to socialize with a commoner when I’m in town and none of the nobles or castle occupants can see it. But to flaunt the fact he’s supposedly my personal guard and now is going to be sitting at my side atop the dais is preposterous. Everyone will be staring. What will they think?”

“What difference does it make what anyone thinks?” she asked Raven. Lark’s smiled faded. “I’ve had my entire clan starin’ at me for years since I am unwed and have a bastard child. I’ve learned to accept it.”

“This is different,” said Raven, feeling a knot growing in her stomach.

“How so?”

“You did something to deserve those stares. I didn’t.”

“You didn’t what?” asked Jonathon, walking up and hearing the end of her conversation.

“Nothing. Never mind.” Raven looked the other way.

“May I escort you, my lady?” His damned arm was out again, and part of her wanted to take it. Yet, another part of her knew that this whole thing was most likely some kind of punishment for her since she’d been caught jousting. Well, her brother and father were not going to get the last laugh as far as she was concerned.

“Out of my way,” spat Raven, pushing past him and climbing the stairs to the dais herself. She plopped down in her chair, feeling like screaming. “Can you believe him, Lark? He’s pretending he’s a noble now. Lark?” She thought her cousin had been right behind her, but she wasn’t. When Raven looked up, she saw Lark sashaying up to the dais, smiling and laughing and holding onto Jonathon’s arm.

“Ugh,” she grunted, holding out her goblet, nodding for the cupbearer to fill it. When the boy did, she chugged it down.

Jonathon started to seat Lark next to Raven, but her father stopped that quickly.