Chapter Nine #2
Ming Tang grinned at her. As those two engaged in conversation, Tay was watching closely.
Mostly, he was watching Athdara. He was watching the way her mouth formed words and the way she spoke, which, as he had noticed at the first, was with a very slight lisp.
It was rather charming. As he had also noticed from the first, her face had a way of lighting up when she was on a subject she found interesting, but more than that, it was the way her eyes glowed when she was listening intently.
He had engaged in a few conversations with her, and he was coming to realize that no one listened like she did.
She had a way of making him feel like he was the only man who had ever spoken to her.
It was the way she gave him her attention that made him want to give her all of his.
As she spoke to Ming Tang about his journey to England, which only involved the methods of transportation and not the actual adventure, Tay had a chance to look her over and noticed that she was limping slightly.
She was essentially wearing the same clothes that he had first met her in, those terrible pauper’s clothes, which were nothing more than breeches, the tunic, a heavy belt, and a robe-like garment that covered her from her neck to her ankles.
It was no doubt not the most comfortable thing to run in, and she probably should have taken it off, but Tay suspected that she was more than likely afraid that it would have been stolen.
In only the few conversations he’d had with her, he knew how much of a fight it had been from her home to this side of Devon.
He knew the difficulties she had faced, which probably included a fear of people in general.
All she’d known was strife and hardship.
He didn’t know what kinds of possessions she had, or if she even had any at all.
Did she have a change of clothes or even a comb?
It was a great mystery. All he knew was that she was wearing the same clothing that he had first seen on her.
To see such a beautiful woman in anything other than an elegant dress and jewels for every day of the week was a genuine crime, in his opinion.
He wanted to change that.
But such help would have to wait.
Tay had already decided that he was going to offer Athdara a room in his residence, mostly because he didn’t want her staying in the communal-type cottages where the assistants were lodged.
He knew his own men, like Bowen, and that they were good men, but some of the other trainers had men with questionable reputations, and he didn’t want her exposed to a dangerous situation.
Or so he told himself.
But the truth was that he was rationalizing the fact that he wanted her to be near him.
Considering he was most definitely interested in her, it was inappropriate for him to want her to stay in his cottage, and he was well aware of that.
But he also didn’t want her out of his sight, which was an interesting dilemma.
A touchy situation was growing… touchier.
Before he could do anything with her, however, they had a meeting to attend.
The longhouse of Eastmoor was toward the southern end of the village, set back from the road and with an adjacent empty lot where a corral had been built and horses were occasionally kept.
The longhouse was built in a Saxon manner, complete with steeply pitched roof, heavy thatching, and a low doorway.
Tay led Athdara and Ming Tang into the longhouse even as they continued their conversation, but once they were inside, Athdara shut her mouth.
Several men were inside, most of them gazing back at her.
“My lady, I want to introduce you to the trainers of Blackchurch,” Tay said, moving for the table in the center of the long, dusty chamber.
There was wine upon the table, and he grabbed for it.
“It is rare when you will have more than two or three trainers gathered together, so consider yourself fortunate to see all of us in one sitting. But they are here for a reason.”
Athdara was still standing back by the door, her eyes wide at the sight of so many big, powerful men in the room.
There was no light inside the hall except for what was coming in through the windows, which hardly illuminated such a big place.
That made the men standing there look like wraiths, mostly shadowed.
It was deeply unnerving.
“I do not understand,” she said after a moment. “Why have I been brought here?”
Tay went over to her, handed her the cup of wine he’d picked up, and pulled her over toward the table.
“Because I told you that my trainer friends and I were going to help you regain your father’s duchy,” he said. “I am going to explain precisely how.”
“Allow me to speak, Tay.”
The voice came from the far end, and everyone turned to see St. Denis entering the hall through a side door with another man trailing after him.
He moved quickly, with purpose, heading into the chamber and straight for Athdara.
As he drew near, he smiled warmly at her, reaching out to take her hand. He held it tightly.
“I am very glad to see that you returned,” he said. “I saw you heading to the longhouse with Tay and Ming Tang from the keep, and I wanted to be part of this gathering. As you are the daughter of the man who once saved my life, this will be an important discussion.”
“I still do not understand,” Athdara said, feeling scrutinized with all of these unfamiliar men around her. “Why am I being discussed?”
“Because you came to me for assistance,” St. Denis said.
“The night you arrived, you were weary and emotional. You told me that you wished to be trained so that you could regain your father’s duchy, but that is a much larger task than we both realized.
It took Tay to discover your true intentions, and that is what we must discuss. ”
Athdara’s gaze, wide and accusing, flew to Tay. “So you were probing me?” she said, aghast. “All that talk… you were interrogating me?”
Tay put up his hands in supplication, but before he could reply, St. Denis answered for him.
“Of course he was not sent to interrogate you,” he said.
“But you were not entirely truthful with me, my lady. You told me that you wanted to learn to fight so that you could avenge your father, but you never told me how you intended to do it. I did not ask, but I suppose I should have. Mayhap you meant to keep that from me, but mayhap you did not. In any case, I understand that you plan to raise a mercenary army to attack Breda Castle and oust your uncle. Had I known this, we would have had a longer discussion before I agreed to train you. I am certain you do not know what trouble you can count on with a mercenary army.”
Athdara was still furious, still feeling singled out and condemned.
She pulled her hand from St. Denis’ grip.
“Mayhap I do not, but that is something I wish to learn at Blackchurch,” she said.
“All Toxandria females are trained with a sword. I know something of battle. I will admit I do not know as much as a seasoned man, but I am not entirely na?ve. I simply need to be taught the skills necessary to regain my father’s duchy.
I have passed your dreg training. I am now a recruit. I have earned this spot.”
“Did ye?” an enormous man with red hair and a heavy Scots accent said.
When everyone turned to look at him, he lifted those powerful shoulders.
“I am asking what we’re all thinking. A short while ago, Tay told us the situation.
He told us how the lady came tae Blackchurch and what her objective is.
But it sounds tae me as if she had some special consideration because of her relation tae you, m’laird. ”
No one said a word at what could be considered definite slander toward their liege. All of them had sworn fealty to the Earl of Exmoor, as that was how Blackchurch operated, and one simply did not go around insulting St. Denis. He was revered.
But in this case, no one could disagree with what the Scotsman said.
They’d heard the story from Tay about an hour before when he sent word to all of them to meet him in the longhouse, and they heard the story of the duke’s daughter and her desire to raise a mercenary army.
Coming from Tay Munro, it had been an odd tale, and an even odder request for assistance, and they’d been discussing it when Tay returned with the woman in question.
Understandably, they were skeptical. Now, they looked to St. Denis for his response, but he was simply staring at his brutally honest trainer.
After a moment, he smiled thinly.
“My lady,” he said to Athdara, avoiding reacting to the Scotsman or the probing stares of his trainers.
“I have been rude in not introducing you to the men who are critical to the function of the Blackchurch Guild. Without their hearts and souls and experience, we would be nothing. My family has sought men like this for generations, and there are thousands of warriors who have passed through our gates, better for having been trained by them. Because these men are so grand, they are given names that embody who they are and what they stand for. With Tay Munro, it is the Leviathan, a mythical creature of chaos and power, born and bred from ancient tales because Tay’s lineage comes from an ancient land.
All things ancient are in his blood. When we look at him, we see the myths that the world was built upon. That is why he is our Leviathan.”
Athdara turned to look at Tay, whose expression remained neutral. He gazed at her steadily, with the confidence of a man who was secure in who, and what, he was. Before she could say a word, St. Denis pulled her toward the big Scotsman who had challenged her qualifications.