“Because I have to keep myself fed and clothed somehow, your highness,” she said sourly. “Nobody’s going to give me anything. My father was a common merc himself before he married my mother, and Grandmother’s the only family I’ve got besides my brother. I’m not going to live out my life on her charity or as the old maiden aunt if I can help it. I’ve seen too many old maiden aunts, taking care of every chore the wife finds inconvenient. And I really don’t have any interest in selling anything other than my sword.”

She thought by his coughing fit, followed by an embarrassed silence, that she’d made him blush.

Finally he cleared his throat, and asked, “Just exactly what are you? You speak like a noble, but you dress like a peasant half the time—a male peasant, at that.”

“That’s because dressing like a peasant is a lot smarter than you think in conditions like this ‘hound and hare’ game,” she pointed out, shifting a little to ease an ache in her hip. “The grays and browns blend right into the forest. And you can’t fight in skirts and tight bodices. Or hunt, or ride, or do much of anything besides look attractive. You’d discover, if you ever bothered to look closer, that a lot of the peasants working in the fields that you think are men and boys are actually women.”

“They are?” Evidently this had never occurred to him.

“How in hell are you supposed to swing a scythe with a skirt in the way?” she asked him. “You’d have your skirt in ribbons! As for us, we were supposed to be thinking ‘enemy territory,’ right? So I was dressed like a peasant, hard to see, and if anyone did see me, they might not think I was anything dangerous. And I was warm, might I add; peasants know how to dress for bad weather. And there you are in a bright red cloak, in the middle of a dead forest. I suspect we’d have been tagged for that alone.”

“Oh.” He sounded gratifyingly chagrined.

“So you just found out for yourself how well those hunting leathers of yours keep you warm in the rain,” she persisted. “You didn’t pay any attention to the weather this morning, you didn’t ask Tarma about it either, did you? I’ve never once heard you ask what the weather was going to be like when we were going to be out all day. It’s been unseasonably good since you arrived, if you want to know the truth.”

“You could have told me,” he replied sullenly.