Courtly laughed softly, displaying lovely white teeth. “Would it be such a burden, then?” she teased. “You are a hero, after all.”
He shook his head firmly. “I am nothing of the sort,” he said. “I happen to be here at the right time and that is all.”
Courtly’s eyes glimmered. “As I said, we were most fortunate.”
Maximum simply nodded. The conversation was dwindling but he didn’t want it to; he rather liked talking to her. Her voice was like music to his ears and her smile made him forget all time and space and reason; it was hypnotic. He could have spent all day listening to her laugh. If she was a siren, then he was gladly and quite happily succumbing to her deadly charms. He didn’t care in the least. But he didn’t want to make a fool of himself by lingering over a dying conversation so he cleared his throat softly, sorry to see it end.
“I will take no more of your time, my lady,” he said, eyeing the little girl clutched against her sister. “Before I go, however, tell me where your father is so I may send him word of your predicament. Surely he will want to know.”
Courtly looked at the hostel, which was now crumbling with flame and ash. Men were attempting to douse the fire with buckets of water, sending great plumes of white smoke into the air.
“I am not entirely sure where he is,” she said. “He said he had business to attend this morning but did not say where. My sister and I have nowhere to go at the moment. I suppose we should simply wait here for him to return.”
Maximus, too, watched men struggle to put out the flame. The building was a total loss as people scrambled to keep the fire from spreading to the other closely-crowded buildings surrounding it.
“Have you no one to wait with you?” he asked. “No servants or soldiers? None of your father’s men?”
Courtly shook her head. “He took his men with him,” she replied. “My sister and I had a secured room and our nurse has gone to do some shopping. We were alone when the fire started.”
Maximus turned to look at her. “Do you know how it started?”
Again, she shook her head. “I do not,” she replied. “We heard the shouts and I went to open the door to the corridor but it was filled with smoke. That is when I tied the bed linens together to make a rope.”
Maximus was quite studying her lovely face as she spoke; he realized that she had a slight lisp, which he found very sweet. There was nothing imperfect about the woman as far as he was concerned.
“That was very resourceful of you,” he said. “Not many women would have had the presence of mind to do that.”
Courtly smiled bashfully. “It seemed the right thing to do,” she said. “I certainly wasn’t going to wait for the flames to consume us. I had to save my sister.”
He nodded his approval. “And you did,” he said. “I shall wait with you until your father returns. That is the least I can do for the woman who saved her sister.”
Courtly was back to laughing softly, now feeling giddy in his presence. She’d never felt giddy in her entire life so this was something new and rather thrilling. Contrary to their embarrassing introduction, she was quickly overcoming it and was now feeling at ease with the man. He was kind and considerate. She rather liked talking to him.
“Truly, that is not necessary,” she said. “I am sure my father will return any moment.”
Maximus simply nodded. “And I will leave when he comes,” he said, eyeing her. “But not before.”
Courtly wasn’t sure what to say to that; she was very flattered that he should take it upon himself to remain with her until her father returned. She wanted to pretend he was doing it because there was something about her personally that he liked, not simply because he felt a sense of chivalry towards her, but it was a foolish hope and she knew it. Still, it was fun to pretend. She would probably never see him again after this so she would take what time she could with him, a handsome and honorable knight of the highest order, and make the most of it.
“You are kind, my lord,” she said, looking away rather coyly when he turned his gaze to her. “Now I am feeling quite guilty for having called you a foul beast. You are nothing of the kind.”
Maximus suppressed a grin. “You have already apologized for that.”
She glanced at him. “I realize that, but I want to make sure you understand that I am truly sorry,” she said, but then her focus moved to the building in front of them, now a heap of flaming ruins. She sighed faintly. “Oh, dear… all of our possessions were in there. I did not even have time to throw them into the street. I suppose I really did not think to because it all happened so fast.”
Garran, standing on the other side of the ladies, heard her. “Mayhap it is good that you did not, my lady,” he said. “There were thieves running off with the possessions that had been thrown out into the streets. Had they run off with yours, we would have had to tear apart the northern end of the city looking for them.”
Courtly looked at the big, broad knight with the black eyes. “I would not have asked that of you, I assure you,” she said. “But I find it quite sad that people must steal because they do not have food to eat or clothing to wear. That is why they steal, you know. They have nothing else.”
Garran glanced at Maximus over the lady’s blonde head, seeing his own thoughts reflected in Maximus’ eyes. She is na?ve, this one. A crystal princess raised in a crystal palace with the only true grasp of the world being what she had been told. Women such as Lady Courtly rarely had a true idea of the evils of the world, protected as they were. Garran cleared his throat politely.
“Mayhap, my lady,” he replied. “But it is also equally as likely that they are simply greedy or wicked. It could be any number of reasons.”
Courtly was still watching the smoldering ruins. “Poverty does terrible things to people.”
Maximus was looking at her; there was something sad in her tone. “Poverty and greed drive men to do bold and wicked things,” he said, changing the subject because he didn’t want to debate the morals of mankind with her. He’d seen far more than this guileless lady could ever lay claim to. “I seem to recall that the de Laras have a townhome in Oxford. Why is it that you did not stay there instead of this hostel?”
If Courtly noticed the obvious change in focus, and she would have had to have been daft not to, she didn’t comment on it. She smiled politely.
“You know a great deal about us, Sir Maximus,” she said. “I wonder what else you know?”
He gave her a half-grin. “I have always been one to remember tiny little details,” he said. “Once I hear or read something, I never forget it. It is a gift or a curse, depending on how one looks at it.”
“How do you look at it?”
“It depends upon the information.”