She was ravenous. She came to the fire where so many had been gathered a quarter of an hour before. Now there were only a handful of men. Sister Amicia and her nuns were gone.

Toby was with the captain. “I’d need help to bed them all down,” Toby was saying.

Ser Gabriel shook his head. “I can’t order men out of their straw,” he said.

Blanche stepped up boldly. “There’s pages awake at the cook fires,” she said.

Toby shrugged. “They’ll be all the lackwits and awkward sods—”

Ser Gabriel put a hand on his shoulder. “You need me?” he asked.

Toby backed away hurriedly. “No—no, my lord. Go to bed.”

Ser Gabriel nodded to her.

“Can I help?” she asked.

“We captured horses at the tournament and more at the end of the fight today. They don’t belong to anyone yet, so they’re all just milling about at the end of the horse lines. Toby is too professional to leave them, and too tired to do anything about it.” He looked at her. “What do you have there?” he asked. He handed her his cup, which was full of sweet wine.

She drank it off before she thought about it.

“Damn, you did it again,” he said.

“I’m sorry, my lord. Sukey took care of me, and gave me a kirtle and some linen.” She paused. “Women’s prattle.”

“I like women,” he said. “I especially like Sukey, who gets more work out of fewer people than anyone I’ve ever known. Sukey has a list for every occasion.” He smiled. “Did Tom find her?”

“When she was ready for him,” Blanche said. Then she winced.

But Ser Gabriel laughed. His right hand found a bottle, and he re-filled his cup. “I’m going to be un-gallant,” he said, “and have some of this before you get it.”

Blanche smiled at him. “You should go to bed, my lord,” she said.

He kicked his feet in front of him, sat with his back against his war saddle and handed her the cup. He indicated his cloak, a great red cloak she’d seen tied behind his saddle. “This is my bed,” he said, a little sharply. “Sukey gave my tent to the Queen and her baby, and now she’s off playing with Tom.”

“I have a tent,” Blanche said. She almost bit her lip in vexation.

The silence went on far too long—ten heartbeats or so.

“I’m not sure just how I want to answer that,” he said. But then, without further hesitation, he was kissing her. She never got clear in her mind how she came to be kneeling by him to be kissed.

Blanche had been kissed before, and she didn’t melt. But she was ashamed of all the things that went through her mind before she let it float away on the kiss. Some of them were very practical.