Loving Lucianna

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

            Sir Balduin was sure Triston meant to be helpful by sending him back to Poitiers. He had not come to the capitol in search of a peacemaking gift for Lucianna this time, but rather with a commission to check on Triston’s young cousin, Acelet de Cary, and see how he was advancing—or failing to advance—in Duke Richard’s court. No doubt Triston hoped to turn Sir Balduin’s thoughts away from his wounded heart back to the martial pursuits that had dominated nearly the entire arc of his life. From the time he had become a page at age seven, he had dreamed of winning his spurs. He had trained hard through his years as a squire until Triston’s father, only a few years Sir Balduin’s senior, had dubbed him a knight at twenty-one. And for the favor, Sir Balduin had served Sir Damien de Brielle faithfully, from fighting beside him in every skirmish and war to drilling Sir Damien’s sons to fight skillfully and boldly through their own young training, until the crippling blow at NAME BATTLE had laid him up so long that Triston had been forced to hire a new sword master at Vere Castle.

            Triston still trusted Sir Balduin’s judgment and eye for proficiency in the battle arts, though, and hence trusted him to return an accurate report of young Acelet’s progress with the sword. Sir Balduin knew it did not bode well for a positive report when a servant at the ducal palace directed him, not to the training field where Duke Richard’s squire’s drilled, but to the “entertainment” taking place in the palace’s great hall.

            Duke Richard Plantagenet, who had taken Acelet under his own tutelage after the young man had rescued the honor of the de Brielle house with a surprising victory against an older and better skilled accuser in a one-on-one challenge, appeared to Sir Balduin’s swift glance to be absent from the hall. Much of his court, however, was sitting or standing enraptured as a lithely built young man sat on the step of the dais, singing a haunting melody of a betrayed water nymph, in a tenor voice so true and sweet that even Sir Balduin’s pragmatic nature paused to listen in awe.

            When the last dulcet vibration of the young man’s voice finally faded away, Sir Balduin shook himself from the spell and began to maneuver himself through the crowd of listeners. He reached the dais in time to hear the collective dreamy sighs of the women gathered nearest to the singer and observe the lovesick gazes they fixed on the flaxen-haired youth. Sir Balduin remembered the girl with the shining brown hair and soft, doe-like eyes who signed the loudest and won a warm smile from the youth. Linnet, Lisette—her name had been something of that sort, but Sir Baldin knew nothing of her beyond the memory of a budding affection Acelet had shown towards her while recovering of a wound incurred during the challenge that had won him Duke Richard’s patronage.

            It appeared to take Acelet a few moments to come completely back to earth from his song. Sir Balduin’s toe tapped impatiently while he waited. He still wondered if it was more luck than skill that had won Acelet’s battle, for prior to that day, the boy had been annoyingly ramshackle about his training, despite his avowed desire to become a knight.

            Acelet at last cast a gaze around his audience and caught Sir Balduin’s eye. His fair cheeks reddened, causing Sir Balduin to realize that he was frowning at the youth. Acelet stood up, made an undeniably graceful bow coupled with a very pretty speech of thanks for the audience’s attention, then excused himself, stepped down off the dais, and came to Sir Balduin’s side.

            “I’m not shirking my practice,” Acelet said, before Sir Balduin could even greet him. “I tumbled Lucas off his horse this morning with my lance and knocked Conrad down with my staff. Sir Aigar says I am his swiftest student and had no objection to my spending the afternoon with my music. Triston said—”