“In all the best ways, I hope,” she replied with a ghost of a smile.

“And in many others,” Gawain said, with a look that she couldn’t quite read.

A willowy, dark-skinned maiden with golden leaves pinned in her curls set down a bottle of wine and two silver goblets with a knowing grin.

“Permettez-moi de vous charmer, mes seigneurs,” the girl murmured.

With an elegant sweep of her wrist, she poured them each a glass. Her hand lingered around Emry’s goblet, and she raised a finger to her soft lips to taste a stray drop of red wine.

Sard. Emry knew she was blushing. And that Gawain was watching.

“Plus tard, peut-être,” Emry said with studied disinterest. “If you wish.”

“I will hold you to that, milord,” the girl said, with a lingering glance at Emry, and a private smile as she reached across the table to adjust a candlestick, her bosom brushing inches from Emry’s face. It was, Emry noted, a particularly lovely bosom.

Her eyes met Emry’s, and she winked.

Emry let out a sigh of relief when the girl left.

“You are surprisingly adept with women,” Gawain observed.

“In a brothel?” Emry’s lips quirked. “I can’t imagine that’s any great accomplishment.”

“It is here,” Gawain said, leaning forward with a wicked grin. “Madeleine is particular about whom she takes to her bed. A night with her is said to bring good fortune. So long as you kiss the heart-shaped birthmark on her left thigh.”

“Are you trying to shock me, Lord Gawain?” she asked.

“Yes. And it isn’t working.” He raised his goblet in a silent toast.

Emry drained hers in one insouciant gulp, as she’d seen her brother and his friends do countless times.

Gawain watched her appraisingly. “Very good,” he said. “You even drink like a lad.”

Emry choked. “I don’t know what you mean.”

She pushed back her chair and rose from her seat as if insulted, though her heart was hammering with alarm. She felt as though she was about to be sick.

“Oh, I think you do,” said Gawain, with a slow smile. He was watching her again, his gaze sharp and his insinuation clear. Emry stared back, the whole world narrowing as he accused, “You switched places with that twin brother of yours. Temporarily. But then he refused to change back.”

Emry’s eyes went wide. How could he possibly know that?

“The night we met,” she said, realizing what had happened. “You were at the Crooked Spire.”

“Et voilà,” Gawain murmured, gesturing for her to take her seat. “Sit. People are beginning to stare.”

Annoyingly, he was right. “Why haven’t you told anyone?” she asked, slouching back in her chair.

She remembered all of the times she’d caught Gawain’s watchful gaze from across the Great Hall. And the times she’d encountered him in the library.