Chapter Thirteen #2
Douglass knew she couldn’t dissuade him completely so she didn’t try, but she wasn’t going to let him come past the door.
If he tried, she had two iron knitting needles that could be turned against him and she would not hesitate.
She returned her focus to her knitting in a gesture that suggested she had little interest in coming to know d’Vant. The message was clear.
“My father is a great man,” she said simply. “What is it you wish to know about me?”
Tallis could see, in that moment, that this would not be an easy task.
Not that he expected it to be. The woman seemed fairly determined to marry de Shera and Bose had explained that Douglass could be stubborn.
But in order to give Tallis a fighting chance to win the lady’s affection, Bose suggested that Tallis open some manner of dialogue with her.
He was giving the young knight that opportunity.
As Bose had gone off to find the youngest de Shera knight and keep him distracted, Tallis had made his way to the small solar where the lady was occupying her time.
“Let me see,” he said, pretending to be thoughtful when he already knew a great deal about her thanks to her father. “Tell me what your favorite food is.”
Douglass was rather surprised by the question. She glanced at him as she continued knitting. “Apples with honey and cream,” she said, not particularly friendly. “What else?”
Tallis fought off a grin, amused by her stiff demeanor.
He decided to try another approach. “When I was a young boy, my father took me down to St. Austell Bay because a great, pirate ship had docked,” he said, watching her knit furiously.
“It was called the Gemini and the pirate was a friend of my father’s, for some odd reason.
As it proceeded, I was taken aboard this ship and I found it an incredibly fascinating and incredibly terrifying experience.
The men shipboard were unlike anything I’d ever seen before; sunburned, dirty, smelly rats.
I was horrified. As I was walking towards the bow or, as was really the case, cringing in fear with every step I took, the rail of the ship suddenly came alive and this terrifying vision with no teeth came up over the side, hurling threats at me as he fell to the deck.
In truth, it was a shipmate who was simply doing his work, but to my eyes, it was a monster out of the sea.
Well, I was so terrified that I ran blindly until I hit the rail on the other side and flipped over the railing, plunging to the sea below.
Fortunately, I could swim, but I heard my father and the pirate laughing on the rail overhead until they choked.
That is one of my fondest childhood memories. ”
By this time, Douglass had stopped knitting and she was listening to him. He was an engaging storyteller. When he finished with a rather comical conclusion, she fought off a grin.
“Fond?” she repeated dubiously. “It sounds terrible.”
Tallis laughed softly. “At the time, it was,” he said. “At least, to me it was. But in hindsight, I suppose it was rather humorous to watch a terrified child flip his way over the side of a boat.”
He continued to snort and Douglass’ grin broke through. But when she realized she was smiling, she quickly straightened her lips and turned back to her knitting. She didn’t want him to think she actually found his story charming.
“I have no such humorous memories,” she said, somewhat stiffly. “My childhood was all quite normal and my father is not friends with a pirate.”
Tallis could see that she was being stubborn, which he didn’t mind in the least. He rather liked a challenge. It would make the victory all the sweeter.
“Surely you have a humorous story somewhere in your history,” he said, encouragingly. “Something with your sisters, mayhap? Or your brother?”
Try as she might, Douglass couldn’t stop thinking about one incident in particular when she, Garran, and their younger sisters were caught doing something they shouldn’t be doing.
Even thinking of it made her smile and, inevitably, she couldn’t help but tell the tale.
Perhaps if she did, Tallis would be satisfied and go away.