Read Online LordoftheHunt by Anonymous Author - Free Book Online Page B

for
our day?”
    “ My day is set. Burnishing harness and weapons,
oiling leather. Ye’re to grapple for the lady’s attentions. Half-naked. It isna
decent.” Douglas gave a loud sniff.
    Adam shook his head and thrust a topaz-embellished dagger
into his belt sheath. “So the lady lied. It is not we who will enjoy the
festivities, but we who will provide them.
    “What happened to skewering each other with swords and
daggers, and the last man standing wins the lady’s hand? We’ll not likely
eliminate any candidates with such tame amusements.”
    “Blood-letting being more sure? But it will not amuse the
ladies quite as well,” Douglas said.
    Adam plucked a pair of braies from his bed and stuck his
finger through a rent in the linen. “You’ll need to stitch this then, or I’ll
shame myself.”
    He headed for the armory to see about his sword. When he
entered the hot space, the armorer looked up, his hammer raised over the tip of
a lance.
    “I sent my sword over last evening.”
    “Don’t have yer sword.” The man returned to his hammering.
    “A page brought it. It has my “V” incised in the hilt.”
    The man’s eyes shifted left, but he shook his head. “Never
seen it.”
    Adam turned and examined the ranks of weapons. There were
far too many for peacetime. And just the right number for war. He plucked his
sword from the group. “This is it.”
    He examined the hilt. It bore a mark along the cross guard
as if a chisel had been hammered against where it joined the blade. “What have
you done here? It’s worse now.”
    The man shrugged, but he lifted his hammer and hefted it in
his hand. The action was less threat than nervousness, Adam decided.
    Adam examined the sword from one end to the other. “I’ll
give you twice what you were offered to damage this hilt if you will tell me
who hired you to do it.”
    “It were given to me that way.” The man licked his lips.
    Adam spun and pressed the point of the sword under the man’s
chin. “This hilt will last but one thrust, I imagine. Enough to cut your
throat. His name.”
    Sweat ran down the man’s temples. He licked his lips. “I
ne’er seen ‘im.”
    “Then I suppose you’ll die.”
    “Nay,” the man croaked. “I know only he were alone. He came
up behind me, offered me three marks to fix a sword. He said I were not to
turn, I’d find it in the straw.”
    “In what manner did he want it fixed?”
    The man blinked as sweat ran in his eyes. “He just said,
‘Fix it so ‘e willna last more than a thrust er two.’”
    “You knew it was my sword.”
    “Ever one knows ye wear the—” He stroked the air with a
quick, slashing V.
    “Do they?”
    “Aye. Some say as ye’ve carved it into the breast of
everyone o’ yer lovers.”
    How reputations were made. “I’ll give you six marks to
repair my sword—properly this time. Ten marks if you can discover the name of
the man who plots my fall.”
    The man stared. “Ye’re not goin’ to kill me?”
    Adam smiled. “Oh, I’ll kill you. I’ll carve my “V” in your
chest so deep you’ll be dead before you fall,” the man’s face paled,“ if my sword fails in the tournament.”
    He tossed the weapon through the air. The armorer caught it
and clasped it to his chest like a cross on which he would pledge his eternal
soul.
    Once in the bailey, Adam found his page. He hooked the lad
by the neck of his tunic and dragged him aside. “To whom did you give my
sword?”
    The boy met his gaze with a guileless stare that told Adam
the lad was innocent as a virgin bride. “I give it o’er to one o’ yer men. He
were waiting outside, he were.”
    “Which one?”
    The boy’s face screwed up in thought. “I canna say.”
    “And what did he look like?”
    “‘E wore a helm, and it were dark. ‘E had a mark ‘ere.” The
boy touched the back of his hand.
    Adam gave the boy a shake. “Next time, give nothing of mine
into any hand but the one to whom I direct you. Now find Douglas and