Page 55 of The Knight’s Reward

“Your very diligent chaperone,” he said, before she looked away. “Does she not wonder about your transformation?”

He looked down, meaning to glance at her gown, but his gaze settled on her deep neckline. Trimmed in gold thread, it glimmered in a way that had caught his attention.

Recognizing that he lied, unsuccessfully, to himself, Neill attempted to ignore his body’s reaction.

“Sara has other ideas for how to keep the maid occupied while she remains here at Kenshire and is thankfully no longer my personal maid.”

“I see.”

Lifting his mug for a drink, he tried to keep his mind from remembering the times she’d melted into his arms, her lips a perfect fit for his.

Neill shrugged away the thought.

So . . . Sara and Kathryn had become fast friends. It warmed him to think of the two women getting on so well.

Wresting him back to the present moment, Kathryn frowned and said, “You do not believe I put myself in danger?”

“By dressing for your station?” Neill shook his head. “I trust my men. If they are confused by the situation, they’ll keep their thoughts to themselves.”

Kathryn placed her goblet onto the table, folding her hands quite prettily on her lap.

“I’ve been hearing tales of your childhood, you know.”

Geoffrey was watching them as Sara spoke to him. He understood his brother’s discomfort. But there was no law preventing him from speaking to a guest. They were simply conversing. Nothing more.

“And you still wish to speak to me?” he asked with a small smile. “I am a lucky man indeed.”

Kathryn’s laugh was like the sound of some mischievous wood-sprite. He wished he could listen to it all day.

“I’ve heard naught but good stories, which is suspicious now that I think on it.”

“Mmmm.” He knew what she was going to say next.

“I’ve heard you were the quickest. The smartest. The most gallant.”

“And that was all before I left for Langford.”

“In fact . . .” Kathryn peered around him at his brother and lowered her voice. “It’s said the only tournament you have lost since becoming a knight was after you wrote to your sister saying, ‘None could possibly best me.’”

“Lady Sara has much to say about me, then?”

“Aye.”

“If I recall, by the time Emma received that very missive, Lord Blackburn of Anglewood had already bested me.”

“Aye, so Sara said.”

“But he was the last.”

“Until Bryce, of course.”

“My dastardly brother-in-law,” Sara said beside her.

“Aye, he is that.” Neill picked up his mug. “As Kathryn has so kindly reminded me, Bryce somehow managed to best me in training at Brockburg.”

“Somehow, eh?” Geoffrey interjected, addressing Kathryn. “A boy left for Langford, a man returned north. But—” he cleared his throat, “—I fear my brother still has much to learn. I suspect he forgot the lesson Blackburn taught him.”

“I left a pain in the arse,” he explained to Kathryn, “and returned to a pain in the arse. Aside from my brother’s beautiful wife and two strapping youngins, it seems all remains the same here at Kenshire.”