so. The tresses were not clumped with mud, which relieved her, but certainly they were in need of a comb. The only time she was aware of her lacking femininity was in the presence of a powerful man.
The men standing around the baron, smirking and handling all manner of shiny weapon from ax to bow to leather-hilted sabre, focused their attention on the woman who so boldly approached.
Oh, but the bravado heavy in the air put her to guard. Absently, Rhiana slid her palm over her left hip. No dragon talon dagger to hand.
Guiscard glided out from his entourage and met her in the center of the keep. The clean lavender scent of his soap attacked her senses as if a fox dashing for the rabbit. Now she smelled everything, from the fennel and mint rising about her skirt hem to the barrage of musk that claimed the keep as a man’s domain. Women belonged in the kitchen and the laundry, she had heard Guiscard say before, or as ornaments decorating their man’s arm.
Curious blue eyes preened across Rhiana’s face, and then tilted a smile at her. Not a generous smile, most always devious.
“Tell me,” he said, “what it is about slaying dragons that intrigues you so? Be it the danger? The fight? The desire to touch such fierce evil?”
“Is not the desire to see my family safe enough of an attraction?”
“But you are a woman. Women do not gallivant after dragons. Why…” He glanced over his shoulder to a fellow knight and murmured, “Women are to be made sacrifices, no?”
A few snickers from the men enforced Guiscard’s cocky stance. A shrug of his broad shoulder tugged tight the gold chain across his chest and with a distracting clink.
Drawing in a breath, Rhiana grabbed back the courage and focus she had initially held. “My apologies for being so abrupt, my lord, but is it possible we may discuss the business of these dragons come to nest in the caves?”
“Dragons in our caves, my lady?”
“Three men have been devoured in five days.”
“You said dragons, as in, more than one?”
“Mayhap.” A surreptitious glance about saw many more eyes had become interested. She did wish to alarm no one, especially the women, so she lowered her voice. “Do you not wish it put to an end?”
The baron now regarded her with a lifted brow. Utter arrogance seeped from him as if the lavender scent. “And you propose to be the one to end it? My lady, I had not thought to entertain such a humorous farce this morn, but I thank you heartily for the amusement.”
He touched her chin with a finger that glittered with enough gold to serve a peasant family for an entire year, and lifted her head to look directly into her eyes. The look was familiar, and dreadsome. On occasion Guiscard caught Rhiana as she was entering Lady Anne’s room. A silent capture, which held her against the embrasure outside the solar, his blue eyes eating her apart with unspoken lust.
“You’ve been to the caves,” he said. “This morning? My men report seeing you leave just after lauds. Your return was not remarked.”
She would lie to no man, for integrity of word was important to her. “I did, my lord.”
“Such boldness to tromp about a dragon’s lair.”
“I killed one rampant this morn. But there may be another. I…sensed its presence.”
“Just so?” He spread his gaze across her face. A curious look. Fascinated or horrified? “You sensed another? Without sighting it? Sounds…magical, to me.”
“I have no magic, my lord.” She wanted to follow with, “I am not a witch,” but best to leave that word unspoken. For once heard…
“Who gave you permission to do such a thing?”
Permission? Rhiana gaped. To protect— To— Why, to see her family safe? She did not know what to say to that.
“You say there are others?”
“Mayhap,” she answered. Still at a loss—he expected her to ask before slaying a danger that threatened the very people of his village?
“So you are not sure. And yet, you boldly approach me with these ideas of another. You frighten us all, my lady.”
“I do not mean to. I only wish to protect—”
“Against imagined evils?”
“They are not imagined!”
“Did you see this other dragon?”
“N-no, but I—” Blessed be, why must the man be so difficult?
“You are not like other women.”
How many times had she heard that statement, and always as an accusation? It deserved the usual response. “I try, my lord, but sewing and cooking does little to satisfy me.”
“Ah?” He delivered a smirk over his shoulder. A few knights snickered. “Well, if it is satisfaction you desire….”
Oh, but she’d put her foot in it with that one.
“Is there a reason you had me escorted to you this day, my lord?”
“Indeed there is.” Mirth fell at Guiscard’s feet. The air of his forced humor instantly hardened. “I was boldly woken by my seneschal this morning with news of your foolhardy deed. Besides the rude awakening, I feel your cut against all in the village. How dare you take matters into your incapable hands.”
“But, my lord—”
“You are forbidden to prance about playacting at this nonsense of slaying dragons.”
“No one is playacting. You can find the carcass on the shore to the north.”
“I believe you, and I am horrified.” He said the last word with such drama, any who had not been discreetly listening now stared boldly at Rhiana. “How many others?”
“One.”
“You are sure?”
She nodded. Not sure, but willing to trust her instincts.
“I will not abide you to go near the caves. And should I hear you have gone against my wishes, I will have you chained and put in my, er—the dungeon.”
“But, my lord, the innocent people! Who will protect them?”
“That is what slayers are for.”
“A slayer?” But she was… Well, she wanted to be—no, she had slain two thus far. She was a slayer! “It will take well over a fortnight to call a proper slayer to St. Rénan. In that time half a dozen more will be plucked out from their boots. I can do this! I am—”
A woman who chases dragons.
The words caught at the back of Rhiana’s throat. Why could she not boldly declare her mien?
“And
