Read Online Fragments of Grace (Prequel to the Dragonblade Trilogy) by Kathryn Le Veque - Free Book Online

they have what you need.”
    “And what if they do not?”
Cassandra wanted to know. “What do we do?”
    Keir shrugged his enormous
shoulders. “Then we will go to a town that has what you need.”
    “May we go tomorrow?”
    “Absolutely.”
    Satisfied, Cassandra turned to
her sister with a smile of victory.  Chloë merely lifted her eyebrows at her
sister’s bold manner.
    “Thanks to you, Sir Keir,” Chloë
said sincerely. “We are grateful.”
    Keir’s gaze fell upon her and he
smiled, the first time since she had known the man that he hadn’t tried to
avoid looking at her. Chloë smiled in return, a genuine gesture, as Keir picked
up the nearest pitcher and poured her more wine.  She accepted it gratefully.
    A servant set a heaping trencher
of boiled mutton and carrots in front of Keir and he immediately slid it across
the table to Chloë.  Then he plopped is taut buttocks on the table, took his
dagger, and began cutting pieces off for her.  Unused to such service,
especially from a man who had very nearly ignored her, Chloë timidly accepted
the meat as he handed it to her.
    “I apologize that we cannot offer
more by way of comfort,” he told her. “I can supply you with a bath and soap,
but I fear it is not the soap a young lady would find pleasurable.”
    Chloë chewed on the tough mutton.
“It does not matter,” she assured him. “Anything at this point is most happily
accepted.”
    He began cutting up the boiled
carrots.  “The keep has four bedchambers so you may share with your sister or
you may have your own chamber.”
    Chloë looked at Cassandra, who
was in conversation with Michael. She turned back to Keir.
    “I think I would rather have my
own,” she whispered, pointing discreetly at her sister. “She snores.”
    Keir grinned, looking at
Cassandra as she chatted and Michael smiled.  She seemed to have the tall
knight smitten.   He leaned closer to Chloë and lowered his voice.
    “Then I will put you on another
floor so you cannot hear her,” he said.
    Chloë giggled and accepted
another piece of meat from the end of his dagger.  “And if it would not be too much
trouble,” she was still whispering. “I should like to bathe first. She will
take all night.”
    Keir shook his head as he cut off
another piece of meat. “You are divulging your sister’s shocking habits, my
lady,” he teased softly, casting her a sidelong glance. “Are you so perfect
that you do not have any bad habits at all?”
    Chloë shrugged and accepted more
meat. “If I do, you will never hear them from my lips. Remember that you told
me that you choose to believe I am as beautiful inside as I am outside. I will
continue to allow you to believe that and smite all who attempt to dissuade
you.”
    He laughed softly. “No one could
convince me that you are anything less than perfect, so have no fear.”
    “Even though I tried to smash
your fingers?”
    He sighed heavily. “I have
already forgotten about that. I wish you would as well.”
    She nodded in agreement. “I
will,” her smile faded. “Still, when I close my eyes at night, I hear sounds of
battle. It wakes me up.”
    His smile faded as well. “That
will diminish also, in time,” he assured her, his gaze moving over her
exquisite mane of deep red hair, thinking on perhaps changing the subject.
“When you are finished eating, I will order you a bath. I apologize that I do
not have any female servants to offer you to assist.”
    She waved him off. “I bathe
alone, although I thank you.”
    “Is there nothing else I can do
for you, my lady?”
    Her smile returned and her deep
brown eyes glimmered warmly at him. “You have done so much already,” she said.
“I will never be able to thank you enough for risking yourself for a woman you
do not even know.”
    He gave her a crooked smile,
being sucked in by the beautiful brown eyes. “I know enough that she tells
scandalous tales about her sister and she is unafraid of a man with a