Though it had been nothing two nights before but a bitter sky over drenched grass, the village green was a riot of color and cheer. The breeze was clean and fresh and dry; vendors tempted the crowds with flowers, treats, and toys beneath tents and a blue sky shot with pink. I was the only rain cloud in sight.

We walked on and found the lists already crowded with horses and riders. Though I knew it was probably my imagination, I felt their eyes on Bear and me as we passed.

I tried to ignore their stares, but my guilty conscience pricked my skin, sang in my ears.

They know what you’ve done. Both of you.

I feared them. I feared the prince. I feared everyone at home finding out I could have done my duty, but I hadn’t.

“Did you know Igraine rode in the joust when she was a girl?” Bear whispered as we climbed the dais steps. A crown of roses waited on my chair beside a note signed in Gemma’s scrawl. I couldn’t help but smile as Bear slipped the crown over my ponytail. “Lord knows how she convinced her father.”

“Did Constantine disapprove?” I asked. “That surprises me.”

Bear frowned and opened his mouth as if to answer, but seemed to think better of his reply.

I imagined Igraine among the men and women now making ready to ride, tightening girths, adjusting armor, talking quietly to their horses. As I watched, one of the women saddling up to ride slipped a ribbon from her hair and tied it to a nobleman’s lance. Another lady tugged a handkerchief from inside her sleeve and pressed it into the hand of a tall man on horseback. He tucked the handkerchief next to his chest, beneath his armor, and bent to kiss her.

“Ladies’ favors,” Bear said softly in my ear. “Little remembrances. That ribbon’s going to come off the lance before the Earl of Norfolk rides, but the idea is nice.” I bit my lip, smiling when he pronounced idea as though it ended in an r. I’d found his accent so cold when we’d first met. Now, I found it unbearably attractive.

“And why don’t the ladies get favors themselves?” I asked, smiling.

“Because they don’t want the distraction.”

I shivered at his breath on my cheek; his lips had been nearly close enough to brush my ear.

The chair beside me moved, and Bertilak took his seat. I straightened, away from Bear.

One more day.

I’d been bored out of my skull the Saturday before, but today, the sun tore through the sky, cruel and unfeeling as a cannonball. The joust was over in a few merciless heartbeats, lances crashing against shields again and again with the speed of a furious cymbal player. My heart ached as precious minutes stole away from me, crumbling like firewood turned to ash.