Sir Hugh must have seen something in her expression and gave a harsh laugh. “Unrequited lust, is that it? I’m not surprised. From what I know of Seton, he holds himself to rigidly high standards for a Scot. Still, he must have ice running through his cock to refuse a tasty piece like you in his bed.”

Alex wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take. Only knowing the embarrassment he would cause her prevented him from revealing himself right then and wiping the crude words from Despenser’s mouth with his fists.

Joan stood in silence, but Alex sensed she was just as furious and anxious to defend herself. So why didn’t she? Perhaps she just wanted it over? If that was the case, it worked.

Despenser closed the distance between them. She tensed at the same time as Alex, but there was no cause. The young knight walked right past her. “When you realize your mistake do not bother trying to correct it. It is too late.”

“I am sorry.”

“Save your apologies,” he said. “I do not wish to hear them.” He smiled coldly. “But I assure you, you will be very sorry.”

The threat wasn’t subtle, nor was it meant to be. In rejecting him, Joan Comyn had just made herself a dangerous enemy, and she appeared to know it as well.

She sank down on a bale of hay with a heavy sigh and a distinctly worried look on her face. Perhaps sensing her mood, the dog trotted out of the stall to collapse into a ball by her feet. For a creature that had caused so many problems for Alex’s former brethren, it sure was a lazy little blighter. But Alex was almost jealous of it a moment later when Joan absently reached down to stroke it gently between the ears.

Alex should probably leave her alone. But it seemed he wasn’t very good at doing what he should do when it came to Joan Comyn.

“Despenser will not forget the slight,” he said, emerging from the shadows where he’d been watching.

She jumped to her feet. The dog that had roused a garrison barely lifted its head in Alex’s direction—apparently its watch days were at an end. Joan recovered quickly and rounded on him. “I knew I heard something! You were spying on me!”

Alex didn’t deny it. “It wasn’t intentional. I was coming back from the river after practice when I saw you come in here with him alone. Damn it, Joan, what were you thinking? You had to know the danger and what could happen. He could have . . .”

The words were so repugnant he couldn’t even get them out.

“Yes, I know ex—” She stopped. For a moment she looked haunted—devastated—but then the familiar defiance returned to her eyes. “I do not need you to protect me, Alex. I can take care of myself.”