Chapter Ten
Luton… Hartwell… Lutterworth…
Those were the names of the villages they’d passed through so far.
Even with the servants tagging along, they’d moved swiftly because the roads had been good.
At this time of year, there was usually a good deal of rain, but it had been an unusually dry season.
That meant the roads were passable, and the small towns they passed through weren’t seas of mud, human waste, and filth.
But it also meant they would reach their destination sooner rather than later.
Katiana didn’t like that prospect at all.
Because of the servants tagging along, Titus hadn’t engaged in the usual banter with her.
When it was just the two of them, he spoke freely and frequently, but with the servants, Katiana was coming to sense that he didn’t want an audience.
In fact, he seemed insulted that the servants had to come along at all and that he didn’t have Katiana to himself.
That’s where Ethyl had been cunning.
She sent a female servant to sleep with Katiana so a certain knight couldn’t circumvent the rules of propriety.
It was clear to Katiana that the servant had been told to stay with her at all times.
It was hilarious, but it was also frustrating, because Katiana had been hoping the trip north would have seen her and Titus having hours of lovely conversation, building a friendship between them.
Or perhaps even more. But the “even more” was the problem—Katiana knew there couldn’t be “even more,” so perhaps the female servant was for the best.
As much as she didn’t like it.
Still, she was able to be close to him. She rode on the back of his warhorse, an enormous animal who went by the highly unlikely name of Jesus.
It was a blasphemous name, and the first time Katiana heard Titus shout at the horse because he had been behaving in a naughty fashion, she thought that he had been cursing.
But the first night when they’d stopped for food and shelter and she heard him say that he needed to “feed Jesus,” she was forced to clarify who, exactly, Jesus was.
Jesus was a big, beautiful gray warhorse.
But Jesus had a mischievous streak. He would nip, jump, and snort.
He didn’t particularly like having two people ride him, so he kept swinging his big head, trying to snap at Titus.
Titus would slap the big neck, or smack the nose, and every so often he’d mutter “ridiculous Jesus” or “ridiculous beast.” The horse would behave for a time, but the second night when Titus lifted Katiana from the horse and set her on her feet, Jesus swung his big tail and caught her across the face. Titus had shouted at him.
Damnation, Jesus!
The days had been long and the nights had been lonely.
Titus pushed their little group hard during the day, and they’d been able to cover thirty to thirty-five miles at a stretch.
He would find an inn at nightfall and always made sure that Katiana had a hot meal, which she would try to pay for, but he wouldn’t allow it.
He made sure she had a warm bed and a meal in the morning before they departed and, so far, had paid for everything.
That made Katiana uncomfortable, as Ethyl had sent her with money to cover the trip, but Titus didn’t seem concerned by it.
But he did seem distant.
On their fifth day of travel, she discovered why.
They’d stopped on the outskirts of Leicester about two hours before sunset.
Up until that day, Titus had been intent on traveling until dark.
He didn’t waste any daylight. But on this day, they stopped early, and he found a tavern called Christ the King, which seemed particularly fitting given the name of Titus’ horse.
Jesus was taken across the road to stay in, appropriately, a stable with a manger, while Titus escorted Katiana into the tavern, with the servants bringing the baggage behind them.
Titus left the three of them standing just inside the door while he went to find the tavern keep and make the arrangements for rooms for the evening.
Though Katiana and the female servant had slept in the same chamber, Titus refused to have the male servant in the same room with him, so the man was relegated to sleeping in the common room.
Katiana stood with the servants, watching Titus as he struck a deal with the tavern keep.
When he seemed satisfied, he came back over to the door where his small party was waiting.
“You two,” he said, pointing to the servants. “Take the baggage and follow the tavern keep. He will show you where we are sleeping. You are to stay to those rooms and not leave them for any reason.”
The servants looked confused by the order, looking at one another, before the male spoke.
“We are to… to sleep in the chambers, my lord?” he asked. “I am to sleep in the chambers?”
Given that he’d spent the last several nights in an open room, Titus understood the confusion, but he was oddly impatient. “Aye,” he said shortly. “You will stay in one chamber and the woman will go to the other chamber. Go there and stay there.”
The female servant’s gaze moved to Katiana. “But the lady, my lord?” she said hesitantly. “Will she come, too?”
Titus simply pointed a finger at the tavern keep standing several feet away, a silent command that the servants should go to him. The male started to move, but the female was slower. She had her orders from Lady Ethyl, after all.
She wasn’t to leave the young lady alone, even for a moment.
“But… the lady,” she said, gesturing to Katiana. “She should come with me.”
Titus was extremely intimidating when he wanted to be. With his size and natural commanding presence, there were few who would challenge him. His eyes narrowed as he bent over, fixing the woman in the eye.
“Move,” he growled.
That was enough for her. She took off, scurrying after the male servant, and the two of them followed the tavern keep into a corridor off the common room. That left Katiana and Titus alone.
She looked at him curiously.
“What was all that about?” she said. “Why are we even here? There is still daylight to travel by.”
He grinned, that cheeky grin that had been the downfall of many a maiden.
“Because I have suffered all I can,” he said.
“I have spent five days with those two boiled-brained fools following us about, spying for your aunt. I will not tolerate them any longer, so whilst they stay to the rooms for fear of my wrath, I am taking you somewhere for a good time.”
Katiana’s eyes glittered. “Is that what happened to you?” she said. “I thought I’d offended you somehow, Titus. You have hardly spoken to me since we left London.”
He took her hand in his big, gloved mitt. “It was because of those spies your aunt sent with us,” he said. “I did not want to say anything that would be reported back to your aunt, so I have spent five days trying to figure out how to be rid of them. Yesterday, it finally came to me.”
“What did?”
“How to be rid of them.”
“How?”
Titus gave her a tug and pulled her out of the tavern and into the street. It was still fairly well traveled at this hour, and he pointed up the road.
“There is a festival in town,” he said. “I saw the bills for it when we were in Lutterworth. Some kind of celebration for some saint, I’m sure.
There are always celebrations for saints, and almost every village I know has a patron saint of something.
I thought we might join the festivities and leave the escort behind. ”
Katiana nodded eagerly. “We should.”
“Good,” he said as he started to walk in the direction he had pointed. “The tavern keep said it was up the road, near the church.”
“How far?”
He shrugged. “I do not know,” he said. “Not too far, I think.”
Katiana was in traveling clothing, the same dress she’d worn for five straight days.
It was dark green, woolen, and plain, but it had a high neck, long sleeves, several skirts, and a cloak sewn onto the back of it.
It was actually quite nice and fit her figure quite well, something that hadn’t escaped Titus’ notice.
On her feet were leather boots, up to her knees, designed to protect her feet and lower legs from rocks kicked up from the road.
They were a lot better than the protection she had on her feet the last time she and Titus had to walk.
“Have you noticed that since the day we were reintroduced, we seem to have done quite a bit of walking?” she said.
Titus came to a halt, grinning. “That is true,” he conceded. “Would you prefer to ride? I do not know how far it is. It could be a mile or two.”
She shook her head. “I have the proper shoes to walk,” she said, sticking out her foot so he could see the boot. “But you are bedecked in armor and protection. Isn’t it cumbersome?”
He looked down at himself. His helm had been in the baggage the servants had carried, but he was indeed wearing everything else as if preparing to go to war. That’s what he wore when traveling, so it wasn’t anything unusual in his world.
“Compared to what?” he said. “Wearing a simple tunic and breeches? Compared to that, it is cumbersome, but this is the attire of a knight, and I am a knight. It is no trouble.”
Katiana didn’t press him. She simply smiled and nodded. “Then let us keep walking,” she said. “After riding all day, it feels good to stretch my legs.”
“Then let’s stretch.”
They did. Titus tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow as they headed up the road, flanked by residences, until they reached an intersection.
It was busier here, with people all along the street, and they could see off to the east that something was going on.
There were more homes, and merchant stalls, and a square of sorts, and beyond that was a large churchyard and the stone spire of a church over the rooftops.
They could hear the music in the distance.