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grunt and a grind of his hips, he pinioned her to the wall.
    Rowena had forgotten the knight until she felt his firm grasp on her forearm as he tugged her away from the lurid scene. She was so intent on peering over her shoulder at the mingled pain and ecstacy on the woman's florid face that she did not see the man who leaped in front of them until she slammed into his hauberk with a force that set her ears to ringing.
    "Who goes there? Gareth, my man, could that really be you?" came the urgent voice.
    "Nay," she replied without thought. " 'Tis Ro—"
    The knight clapped his hand over her mouth.
    "Aye, Blaine. 'Tis Gareth. I do believe you've knocked my squire insensible. Clumsy lad, Ro is. I shall have to beat that out of him." The knight loosed his grip on her mouth and gently boxed her ears.
    This was followed by a hearty slap on the back from the slender gentleman. He peered drunkenly into her face, and a smile quirked the corners of his thin lips. Rowena gasped, unable to remember a time when she had been knocked about with such relish.
    "Who would be foolish enough to trust their young whelp into your blackhearted hands?" Although he addressed her captor, Blaine's gaze traveled from her face to her felt-clad feet with insinuating slowness.
    "Need I remind you how many times these blackhearted hands have unseated you in a tourney?" Gareth replied.
    Blaine ignored him and circled Rowena. "Small, is he not?"
    "You were small yourself once, Blaine." Gareth slapped a muscled arm around Blaine's shoulders and guided his stumbling steps away from Rowena and toward the drawbridge. "Have you forgotten the time I pitched you out the window with one hand when we were but lads?"
    "How could I? I landed in a bramble bush and spent the rest of the night soaking my finer parts in a barrel." Blaine shielded his eyes from the torchlight and hooked one arm around Gareth's neck. "Yet still I welcome you to Ardendonne. What a fool I am! I should feed you to the man-eating fish in my moat."
    Gareth rolled his eyes. "After the camels ran away, I thought you'd give up on exotic animals."
    "When the Prince of Wales took to bragging about his pet lion, I had to find some way to best him." Blaine shook his head sadly. "I lose two or three guests every feast day. One splash and they are no more. Nothing left but bones to be fished out when the sun rises. Ah, well."
    Gareth jerked him back as he swayed toward the side of the drawbridge. Rowena hugged herself and edged closer to the center of the bridge, refusing to raise her eyes for fear of finding bleached bones floating in the bubbling water.
    She followed the men through the bailey and into the vaulted hall, her eyes locked on Gareth's back as he steered Sir Blaine away. She read a thousand warnings in the glance he threw over his shoulder as they disappeared into the milling crowd.
    She halted, her captor's desertion making her feel oddly at a loss. Thrusting her hands deep in her sleeves, she whistled, pretending to be unaffected by the strangers reeling about her in various states of drunkenness and dishabille. As her gaze traveled the room, it lit on a sight that made her mouth water and the rest of the hall fade to invisibility.
    She shouldered her way through the galloping dancers and halted as close as she dared.
    A man in a red velvet mantle grinned and nudged her. "Make haste, lad. Tis been picked to bare bones, but you might yet find a few choice morsels."
    Rowena started to laugh and cry at the same time. The man sidled away, believing her daft or drunk or both. On a table that stretched twenty feet along the wall lay the remnants of Ardendonne's feast. Revel-wood would not see this much food in a year.
    Rowena's stomach rumbled a warning. She placed her feet farther apart to keep from swaying. A half-eaten boar's head stared her down with glassy eyes from the center of the table. Stealing a hasty glance around her, she plucked the apple from its mouth and shoved it up her sleeve.