Chapter 18.4.1

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Curtains of sleep drifted aside, and I still had my lady in my arms. I opened my eyes and stared at the rough-planked ceiling above me. From below came the sound of voices – the boys were getting ready for bed. I was very, very happy.

"Are you quite finished?" spoke someone on the other side of the room.

Wallen sat on the bed on the other side of the room, tired and ragged. A fresh bruise marked his cheek, high above his thick blond beard.

I rolled over and freed my hands. "My Lord, I don’t think that this is the time."

"There’s no other time. Sharp is in a drunken stupor. He has forbidden me to speak to you."

"We are away from Rockridge," I signed. "There is no longer a danger in speaking to me."

"The danger comes from Sharp." Wallen touched his cheek.

"Did Sharp give that to you?"

"This was from Master Marlin, for raising my fist to my elder and – better. The Masters here are stricter than they ever were in my old school."

I sat up, to make signing easier. "The Masters of your old school knew who you were. The Masters here don’t – fortunately."

His gaze drifted into the distance. "No – my teachers knew no more than the Masters of the Guidlhall. My father told me, and I thought it was all a game, to pretend that I was a rich merchant’s son, sent to school with all the other rich merchant’s sons. Just a game. But tonight, if Charles had revealed me as his Lord, they would have killed me – wouldn’t they?"

I nodded. "You remain in great danger. Take the Lady Laurice and go to her father – I doubt he will be angry when he knows who you are, and you’ll be safe from the Bards."

Wallen stared at his hands, sore and split by their recent ill-treatment, then up at the rough beams. His gaze then returned to my face, the eyes of the young boy on the marble steps of the Bardhall, so many years before. "I should, first, apologize for my actions of tonight. I was drunk, I was angry, I was hurt. God, was I hurt, when you held yourself away from me at Rockridge. I felt so lonely, so – little."

Welcome to the life of a beggar. But I kept my hands still.