The Blacksmith: A Medieval Romance (Order of the Broken Blade Book 1) by Cecelia Mecca

Author:Cecelia Mecca [Mecca, Cecelia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Altiora Press
Published: 2019-07-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

“You’ve improved.”

Lance sheathed his sword, pleased to hear it. The two of them left the clearing for Lance’s private chambers.

“You have not,” he said to Guy without smiling, though his friend knew he did not mean it. In fact, Guy Lavallis was an expert swordsman. He’d been raised by mercenaries, knighted by the French king, and was notorious for never losing a match. In every tournament he entered, he came away the victor of the sword, disarming his opponents at will.

It was Guy who’d taught Lance to use a sword upon their first meeting at the Tournament of the North. It was also Guy who’d helped him secure a position with Lord Bohun, one that had ensured he need not return to his father.

Unfortunately, that had also meant leaving behind the one person who’d loved him above all others, the kindest woman who’d ever lived. To this day, Lance was unsure if his mother had told him the truth when she’d claimed his father had stopped the abuse. At the time, he’d taken her at her word.

He’d wanted to believe it.

“For a man in love, your disposition is far from pleasant.”

Lance stopped as they returned to his private chambers at the back of the forge.

“I am not a man in love.”

Yet his mind went back to the night before, to the countess’s confident declaration that her daughter loved him. His friend had been relentless in his interrogation about that meeting, but Lance had refused to tell him anything. Nor would he do so now, out in the open.

As soon as they entered the private chambers behind the forge, Guy unbelted his sword and laid it on the sole table in the place Lance now called home. Though small, it was larger than his last home and not so much bigger than the one in which he was raised.

“Your behavior says otherwise,” Guy quibbled.

Lance sat on the bed, hands on his knees.

“You’re certain there is no mission to which you should be attending?”

Guy’s impertinent smile was his answer.

“Since securing Stanton’s support is essential, no. After last eve, I’ve a sense I shouldn’t leave the job solely to you.”

He shouldn’t ask questions to which he already knew the answer.

Both men fell silent.

For a man in love.

He had never been in love before. He’d bedded women, but only those with little expectation of a future with him. Widows, mostly.

Idalia was different.

He mourned every moment they were not together even though he knew he should be concentrating on the task at hand. And while he’d heard some encouraging news today—the earl had apparently paid a visit the previous month to a border lord who was vocal with his disdain for the king’s current practices—Lance’s thoughts were filled with Idalia.

And her mother. Would she truly welcome a blacksmith as her daughter’s husband? It seemed unlikely, despite her words.

“You are distracted.”

Lance did not deny it.

“While we sit here at Stanton, the king continues to wreak havoc on all of our lives. Even Stanton’s own village shows signs of peasants’ suffering courtesy of John’s outrageous taxes.

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