Leander turned away in disgust, and Minerva flared, "Proved! What proof can peasants offer, against a thieving and rapacious lord?"
"Peasants cannot," Geoffrey told her, "but another lord can. Nay, I have said I will be your advocate, and I shall. This I swear—and I shall seek out what proof I can. Be of good cheer; this is no idle boast. I have agents who shall go among you unseen, for they owe me favors, even as I owe them. But I must ask you to trust me in this, for I cannot prove good faith until I speak before the Crown."
"At which time, if you break faith, it will be too late for us," Minerva said, tight-lipped. "No, we must keep our chief here."
"I have said I will ride with this knight, and I shall!" Quicksilver snapped, beginning to be angry again. "For the rest of you, though, go back to Castle Laeg, and hold it for me! I must have a home to come back to, when I have escaped from this popinjay!"
"Oh, a popinjay, am I?" Geoffrey rounded on her, eyes glinting at the prospect of a good fight.
"Aye, a popinjay, and it is my lance for which you shall be the target!" Quicksilver stepped in to face him, fists on her hips. "Do not think to reverse that, for when did a popinjay bear a lance against a rider?"
A murmur of admiration and delight spread through the outlaw host. Geoffrey only grinned. "Beware, for your popinjay is truly a quintain, and equipped with a lance of his own!"
"My remedy, then, is to break it!"
"What then, will you break a lance with me?" Geoffrey purred, his eyes glowing into hers. "A valiant deed, and sport worthy of a true knight-errant."
Minerva stepped forward, alarmed, but Quicksilver only smiled with the same ferocious delight Geoffrey showed and answered, "I am not a knight, sir, nor even a squire, but only a squire's daughter."
"That may be so," Geoffrey conceded, "but you are every inch a lady."
Leander frowned. "What riddle is this you speak? A lady is the daughter of a lord or, at the least, a knight. A woman must be born a lady, or can never be one!"
"I must agree with that," Geoffrey returned, his gaze still on Quicksilver's, "but I have just discovered that a woman can be born a lady even if her father was not a lord."
The outlaws murmured in amazement, but Minerva cried in alarm, "Beware, mistress! He seeks to cozen you!"
"Of course he does," Quicksilver said. "When was there a man who did not seek to cozen every pretty maid he met?" But she was still smiling, still held her gaze locked with Geoffrey's.
"Sister," Leander said, a quaver in his voice, "I fear for you."
Geoffrey did not think he was talking about the noose. "Some dangers I must face alone, Leander," Quicksilver told him, her gaze unwavering, "but the prize is worth the gamble."
"Not if the dice are loaded against you!" Minerva cried in near panic.
"Fear not, sweet friend," Quicksilver told her. "I have thrown with loaded dice before, and won."
Of course, Geoffrey thought—she was telekinetic. He wondered if he should read a double meaning into that, too. "You seem to forget," he said, "that riding with this woman is a gamble for me, too."
Minerva looked up at him in surprise. "I did not think you would realize that!"
"Oh, yes," Geoffrey said softly, "but I cannot lose, you see—for with a woman like this, even loss is gain." Minerva frowned, not understanding, but Quicksilver blushed and turned away.
When she raised her face to her outlaws, the blush had faded. "Go back to Castle Laeg," she cried, "and hold it for me! Will you or nil you, I shall ride with this knight!"
"Our only remedy, then, is to take you back by force," Leander said, frowning.
Quicksilver turned a very cold gaze on him. "Brother," she said, "I love you dearly, and owe you greatly, but I should chastise you sorely if you did. You must make your life, and I must make mine."
"Life?" he said bitterly. "Or death?"
"I shall die boldly, or live sweetly," she told him. "Do not seek to save me from myself, brother, or you might destroy any chance of happiness that I might ever have. Go now, and do not seek to guard me again!" She turned back to Geoffrey. "Let us ride!"
With great reluctance, her bodyguard brought forth her horse—a spirited bay mare—and the outlaws disgorged Fess. Knight and bandit both mounted, and the tall black stallion said, in mental words that only Geoffrey could hear, I hope you know what you are doing, Geoffrey.
If I do not, I am sure that you will, he returned. Bear me on to glory, Fess.
CHAPTER 8
You seem to have extricated yourself from another difficulty, Fess thought at Geoffrey.
Aye, though I think it may be my captive who has extricated me. How did they find us so quickly, Fess?
When you disappeared, they took a moment to recover from the shock, then Leander dispatched runners to the sentries. They do indeed have a network that surveys every route through this forest, though boasting of every foot is a bit of an exaggeration.
'Every route' includes the rivers, then?
It does. A sentry sent word of your arrival almost as soon as you appeared by the riverbank. Her attention was no doubt attracted by the explosion accompanying your appearance.
Quicksilver mistook his long silence. "Are you so angered by a mere challenge when it is not even a defeat?"
"It is irritating to be denied battle, when I have prepared myself for it," Geoffrey acknowledged.
"Aye." Quicksilver seemed to know exactly what he was talking about. "But I could not allow it, you see. I could not risk the lives of my warriors—and my brothers least of all."
Geoffrey swung about in his saddle, staring. "Could not allow it?"
Quicksilver stared, confused, then smiled as she understood his meaning. "Has a woman never denied you before?"
"Only in that which it was hers to deny." Geoffrey felt the hot blood mount into his face.
"And never before have you met a wench who could deny you a battle," Quicksilver said drily. "You forget that I am not your common wench, Sir Knight."
"Aye, neither my wench, nor any man's! You are a lady, and do not think I do not know it!"
"Then you know more than I do," she retorted. "I am the daughter of a country squire, nothing more!" Geoffrey tossed his head irritably, dismissing the objection. "You are certainly no man's wench, if you told me truly in your tale of your life."
"I did!"
"So I thought—but it occurs to me now that you may have had more motive to tell me that tale, and so fully, than merely the desire to satisfy my curiosity."
"That is all that I shall satisfy!"
"You are frank in that, but perhaps not in other matters. You kept me in converse so that your bandits might find us, did you not?"
Quicksilver smiled and tossed her head, her long hair swirling about her head and shoulders. "What if I did?"
"Nothing, save that I must always ask myself hence forth why you do what you do. This trail that we followwill it lead us out of the wood?"
"Aye."
"But will it lead us out if we follow it in the direction in which we are now riding? Or will it only lead us further in?"
Quicksilver smiled again, amused. "It will lead you further in."
Geoffrey nodded, vindicated. "I must ask you everything, must I not? And surely watch each word I say. Come, let us go out." He turned Fess's head.