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How odd to realize how little he valued the worship knights and squires lavished on him, yet he wanted Edlyn to think well of him. He wanted her to worship him as everyone else did, only Edlyn didn’t care about his fighting skills, and fighting was the only thing he knew.
“It shall be as you wish, my lady.” He kept his voice low. “I give you Burdett the steward and his wife to run my estate.”
A smile broke across her mutinous face, and she sprang to hug him.
He stopped her with a grip on her arms. “But lady, should they betray us, I will take the payment out of your hide.”
She still grinned even though he held her away. “I’m not a fool, Hugh. I know how to read and balance books. If they’ve been cheating, I’ll know immediately, and you can throw them out. And if they try to cheat us”—her chin firmed—“they’ll only do it once.”
He believed her, and he felt a little better. Now if only he could keep this from the prince…
“Good people,” he announced. “I yield to my wife’s plea of compassion and will allow Burdett the steward and his wife to remain until they prove their worth.”
Burdett’s wife collapsed into Burdett’s arms. Burdett tried to speak but couldn’t be heard for the cheering of the servants.
“They like them,” Edlyn said. “Tis a good sign.”
Burdett’s wife broke away from her husband, ran toward Hugh, and flung herself at his feet. “My lord, my lord! I thank you.” She grabbed his boot and kissed it. “God will bless your generosity. I will pray for your body and your soul every day. We will never betray you. Never.”
15
“Neda kissed your boot.”
“Aye.”
“That’s disgusting.”
Hugh stopped and considered. “I rather liked it.”
“You would.” Edlyn clearly loathed the idea, but Hugh grinned.
He and Edlyn had been following the steward and his wife about the keep for hours, smiling, nodding, and all the while Edlyn had been bubbling with indignation. He’d been glad to let her. She deserved it after that scene outside. But at last she could contain herself no longer, and her ire had burst forth.
She deserved that, too, and he mocked her. “You’re just angry because she didn’t kiss your boot.”
“I didn’t want her to kiss my boot!”
“My lady?” Neda stopped when she realized they had fallen behind.
Hugh glared at Neda, but when she shrank back, he pasted a smile on his face. He resisted showing his chagrin at bowing to Edlyn’s demands, but he had to needle her.
Burdett hurried to them. “Is there a problem, my lord and lady?”
The steward and his wife were going to have to learn not to interfere before he’d extracted his full revenge.
“I think my lady said something.” Neda’s voice trembled with worry.
Edlyn patted Neda’s hand. “Nothing of importance. Pray continue the tour.”
The steward and his wife exchanged miserable glances, then the steward nodded and Neda held the next door open. “This is the buttery.”
Burdett gestured them inside. As with everything, the chamber for serving drinks was in perfect order. On the other side of the corridor was the pantry, with all the accoutrements for cutting the trenchers out of bread.
As they left, Hugh caught Edlyn and turned her to face him. “You may not have wished her to kiss your boot, but I saw the look on your face. You were jealous.”
“I was not.”
Her sharp chin stuck out, her cheekbones stretched her skin, and her eyebrows formed two slashes of brown across her forehead. She wasn’t a pretty woman, but those angles challenged a man much as a quintain challenged an untried squire.
