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“I do not think so,” Aimee disagreed. “For it seems to me that you are the firm crowd favorite here.”

Konrad growled. “Aye, well …” he started but seemed unable to continue. Taking pity on his discomfort, she patted his hand and then rose from her seat to join Aileen Howard to sing their song as the closing entertainment of the evening.

26

On the walk back to the pavilion, Konrad was still feeling out of sorts. He was not sure what had happened over the course of the meal, but the copper bowl under his arm seemed to proclaim him some sort of people’s champion. He glanced down at Aimee who was tripping blithely along by his side.

“As a matter of fact, I do not dislike Orde,” he said in the manner of one severely goaded.

“I know you do not,” his infuriating wife replied calmly. “You like him. You like him because he treats you as an equal.” While he reeled from this piece of wisdom, she carried on. “There are actually remarkably few people you dislike, Konrad. You even like your manservant, who would have been your enemy in the last war. You like him so well you trust him at your throat with a straight razor.”

Once again, Kentigern found himself at a loss for words. “He’s very careful to avoid my scars,” he heard himself bluster in reply. He sounded like a damned fool.

“Why did you not invite any of your fellow knights to our wedding?” she asked, ducking inside the tent before he could answer.

He followed her inside. “Because,” he said heavily. “It seems my blindness extends to more than just this one eye.” He placed the bowl down carefully. “I did not even realize they liked me here,” he added sounding as confused as he felt.

“Maybe it is not just here,” Aimee said softly. She had started to undress. He moved across at once to help her with the lacing down her back.

“Maybe,” he conceded gruffly. He remembered how he had been sought out at the palace by the likes of Vawdrey and Orde. Vawdrey had wanted him to hold his baby, for the sake of the gods. You did not let your enemy do that. Was it possible, he pondered, that Vawdrey and Orde were also friends of his? He had the lurking suspicion they might be. Or they could be. If he would just let it happen.

He should just have let a lot of things happen, he realized in a moment of sudden clarity. Instead of stubbornly resisting any changes to his barren, arid life. He had thought Magnatrude an embittered fool for shutting herself up in the lodge house at Bartree, brooding on the past. But had he not been just as trapped himself in snares of his own making?

People wanted to like him. Aimee wanted to love him. Why was he forever swimming against the tide when all he really wanted to do was let it engulf him and carry him along? He was not some static piece of rock, but another living creature, with the same longings and needs and concerns as his fellow men.

“Konrad?” Aimee reached up to clasp his hand which was now lying idle on her shoulder. “Is all well?” She started to turn, but he caught her about the waist and pulled her back against him.

“Aimee,” he said tightly and dropped his head to rest it against her black hair. It had too many braids and pins in it, so he started to draw them out.

She was silent a moment, seeming to sense his odd mood, letting him hold her close. “Is something wrong?” she asked quietly.

“I still don’t like the way you sing that last verse,” he admitted lamely.

His thoughts were whirling too much for him to express himself with anything like coherence. He was astonished by the things Aimee had made him admit that night, even if only to himself.

“Lady Aileen sang it very nicely, I thought.”

He grunted, unable to comment on Aileen Howard’s performance as he had not paid it any heed. Setting the handful of pins he had removed from her hair onto the table, he ran his fingers through the perfumed length of her dark hair, separating the strands.

“Jakeman brought all the furniture back into the tent,” she commented, looking about them. “The candle looks like it is about to go out. Let me light another.”

“Do not bother,” he said. “There is sufficient remaining for us to undress by.”

Aimee stepped out of her loosened gown. “Brrr,” she shivered, now down to her shift. “Once the sun goes down, you certainly feel a nip in the air.”

“Get under the covers,” he recommended.

“I will once I have washed my hands.” She removed her necklace and set it on the table and then moved to the basin for a quick wash in what must be cold water by now.

“Should I rouse Jakeman to fetch more water?” he asked.

“No,” she answered with a quick shake of her head. “I had a good wash before dinner. This will suffice.”

She splashed about a bit and then hurried to the bed while he performed his own strip wash and blew out the candle.

When he joined her moments later, they both gravitated toward each other in the darkness, and Aimee gave a contented sigh as he wrapped himself around her.

“How is your body now?” she asked in a muffled voice from his shoulder.