Page 22 of Falling for the Knight

“Before that.”

“Strangers. Or maybe friends if the families know each other.”

“Geez.”

“Unless you are a whore.”

Had he seriously just said that? “Pardon me?”

“There are women who have relations with men before marriage, but they are either widowed or common. Unless they’re getting paid, and then they are—”

“I know, you don’t have to say it again.” Hannah hated that word. “Those women are called prostitutes in my time.”

He was looking at her strangely again, his head cocked to one side.

“What do you mean by common?” Widow, she understood.

“A woman who is neither a lady nor a . . . prostitute.”

“Right. Because ladies don’t have sex before they’re married. No contraception and heirs and all.”

“Is it not so in your time?”

He still didn’t believe her, but at least he was playing along. So would she.

“We don’t have an aristocracy,” she said. “No lords and ladies or anything like that. So no, it’s not like that. I mean, there are classes, but . . .”

“And what is contraception?”

Oh boy. Better just to get it out there. “Ways to prevent a woman from becoming pregnant?”

“You mean—”

“Having a babe.”

He paused, presumably to think about that one for a second. “There are ways,” he shrugged. “Though they cannot always be trusted.”

And though neither said another word, an understanding passed between them. One that did not need to be spoken of aloud. One that would prevent her from ever knowing Tristan that way.

How had they gotten so off-topic? “Your turn to answer my question.”

“I will tell you tonight.” Tristan stood.

“Tonight?”

He looked her up and down, and she hated that her body immediately responded. He was arrogant and borderline cocky. Definitely presumptuous. And yet . . .

“It’s getting late.”

“Late? It can’t be a minute past seven o’clock . . . in the morning.”

Yes, another blank stare.

“If we’re going to get to Leannan Falls by tomorrow, we will need to leave soon. I’ve no desire to—”

“Tomorrow?”

And then it hit her. “Tristan, how will we get there?” She still wasn’t sure how she felt about traveling with him, but she supposed it was preferable to a stranger. And he obviously cared little about her opinion on the matter.

“Horseback,” he said as if she were daft.

“That’s what I was afraid of.”