Hidden Dragons (6 page)

Tildeth and Growloranth twined their long necks
in greeting and disappeared within the dark barn. Isabelle had seen
Growloranth return from another foray into the forest with another
deer while she was cooking dinner and she expected that one was
meant for the dragons. But sure enough, when she went outside to
fetch a small piece of wood from the barn a while later, Robert was
working on another deer hide, attaching it to another newly-made
frame.

Bernard and Robert spent a short while talking
quietly and cleaning up from their labors. As night fell in
earnest, a knock sounded on her door and she let them into her
small house. Both sported wet hair and fresh clothing. They wore
dark colors in well-worn fabrics that allowed them to move even
more silently than before. They also looked neat and comfortable.
And incredibly handsome.

Bernard had shed his bulky leather armor and
she could see now that he was built of solid muscle. Leaner than
she had expected for such a big man, she could see the muscles of
his arms rippling as he moved. Her mouth watered at the sight.
Never had she been so close to two such handsome men.

Of the two, Robert had the more perfectly
formed face. His hair was slightly longer than Bear’s, and he was a
tiny bit smaller in stature than his fighting partner. Bear was a
mountain of a man who spoke little, but watched all. He had a
penetrating gaze, and if his face wasn’t quite as perfect as
Robert’s, he was still just as attractive, just in a different
way.

Robert was gorgeous. Bear was compelling. And
both made her knees weak when they moved close to her in the
confines of the small house.

“
Do you play?” Sir Bernard asked,
shaking her out of her reverie. He was pointing toward the small
stringed instrument in the far corner of the room.

“
My mother taught me,” Isabelle
informed him. “We brought that with us from her homeland far in the
north. She also played the flute and tin whistle, which she taught
me as well. We used to pass the time during the cold winter months
practicing by the fire.”

She remembered those long winter nights fondly.
Her mother had been a truly gifted musician, but she refused to
play for the villagers—and had forbidden Isabelle from doing so as
well. In honor of her mother’s memory, Isabelle still kept that
promise to this day.

“
Mayhap you’ll play for us after
dinner?” Robert asked with a hopeful look in his eyes. “Bear plays
the flute quite well. Perhaps you can find a song you both
know.”

Isabelle looked at Sir Bernard. He seemed a bit
bashful, but willing to try, so she nodded.

“
We can try,” she answered gamely,
motioning for the men to sit at the table.

There were only two chairs and they hesitated,
looking at each other for a moment before Sir Bernard inexplicably
rushed out the door. Before she could ask where he’d gone, he was
back, a heavy log in his hands. He carried the huge chunk of tree
easily, impressing Isabelle with his strength. The piece had been
cut to a suitable height, she realized when he placed it upright at
one side of the table. He could use it as a stool, solving the
seating issue.

“
I was going to sit by the hearth,”
she said quietly. “But this is much better. Thank you for thinking
of it.”

Bear smiled as he sat on the up-ended log, and
she and Robert took the chairs. She was seated at the one next to
the hearth, so she could easily reach the pot of stew. She lifted
it off the hook that had kept it bubbling over the fire, and placed
the heated pot in the center of the table, on a block of wood
designed to hold it steady and protect the table top from its
heat.

She uncovered the iron pot and the aroma of the
stew spilled forth. It smelled good. Better than anything she had
cooked in a long time. She didn’t usually go to much trouble just
for herself. Since her mother’s death, there were precious few
reasons to cook a special meal.

“
That smells delicious,” Robert
complimented her as she reached for the two wooden bowls she and
her mother had used.

She filled both, handing one to Bear, but when
it came time for her to give the other one to Robert, he instead
offered another wooden bowl of different design. He smiled at her,
softening the realization that he had noticed that she didn’t own
much in the way of tableware.

“
We have things in our packs that
we can use to supplement your wares,” he said quietly. “I know you
live simply and have little use for company.” She was shamed by his
knowledge of her lack of friends. “We have imposed on your
hospitality a great deal and you have not complained once, though
you have had a right to.” He laughed and held the bowl steady as
she filled it for him, letting the moment pass.

It was embarrassing to know they had noticed
how poorly she lived, but their matter-of-factness about it made
her feel a little better. They were truly gentlemen as well as
knights of the realm.

“
Mama and I didn’t entertain much.
We only made what we needed for ourselves,” she tried to explain in
a quiet voice as she filled his bowl.

“
Made?” Bear asked. “You made these
things?” He held up the intricately carved spoon, seeming to admire
the woodwork she had taken pains to learn how to do
competently.

This, at least, was a question she could answer
without shame. She put down the wooden ladle as Robert placed his
now-full bowl down in front of him. Then she reached into her
pocket and pulled out her latest project. It was the little piece
of wood she had taken from the barn’s small stockpile earlier in
the day.

“
I began working on this today. It
will take a while yet to finish the fine detail and smooth it out
so there is no fear of splinters, but your presence here reminded
me that I should at least try to be prepared for company.” She
offered the half-carved spoon to Bear for his inspection. The spoon
form was complete. It was the scrollwork and leaf pattern on the
stem she had yet to fill in completely.

“
This is fine work, mistress. You
have great skill with wood carving. Why, you could trade these for
coin in many towns and villages,” Bear proclaimed, examining the
spoon with great care.

Isabelle smiled. “I actually do trade them on
occasion. There is a tinker that comes through once every season.
He does not leave without visiting me to see what I have to trade.
He was here last month and I traded a set of twelve spoons of
similar design for my new bed linens and a few copper pennies. I
would have had more to trade except it was harvest and I had little
time to work on them,” she admitted. “I used the pennies to buy
eggs each market day, until they ran out.”

“
You like eggs?” Bear asked
quietly, handing the half-finished carving back to her.

“
Very much,” she agreed, pocketing
the spoon and realizing they had yet to begin their meal. It seemed
the knights were waiting for her. “Do you mind if we say the
blessing before we eat?” she asked, not sure of the proper
etiquette.

“
By all means,” Robert answered,
smiling and putting her at ease.

She paused, bowing her head. “Blessed Mother of
All, it is by your bounty that we have this food to eat. Thank you
for your blessing. By your grace, please watch over us and guide us
with your loving hand, this we pray,” she said, using the simple
words her mother had often used.

There were more formal blessings, but on this
occasion it seemed only right to use the more familiar words. They
put her at ease, regardless of the fact that she was about to share
yet another meal with two of the most attractive men she had ever
met.

But they were not for her. These men were
noble. Knights of the realm. She was just a poor woman who eked out
a living on the edge of the forest. She was nobody. She could never
hope to claim the attention of a man such as these in a romantic
way. Still…a girl could dream.

Blessing complete, they started to eat in
comfortable silence. From the way the men devoured the stew, she
gathered they liked it. A lot. When she was only halfway through
her own portion, they were already finishing theirs. Bear finished
first, looking at her with a somewhat sheepish
expression.

“
This is delicious, mistress,” he
said, watching her with hopeful eyes. It was odd to her how much a
grown man—a knight, no less—could seem like a youngling at
times.

“
Please do not stand on ceremony.
If you want more, take it. With all the meat your companions have
set to smoke tonight, there will be a bounty in my larder tomorrow
the likes of which it has never seen before. I thought perhaps, if
you liked the stew, you and Sir Robert would finish this pot
tonight. Will that be enough?” She looked uncertainly at her small
pot and then back at the big men who were eyeing the stew in it
avariciously.

“
It is more than enough,” Robert
assured her. “Thank you for thinking of our comfort.”

She smiled and went back to eating as the men
wrestled over dividing up the remainder of the stew. There was a
small tussle, but they seemed to recall their surroundings before
it could escalate into anything bigger. Isabelle hid her smile,
bending her head to eat.

The more she was around these knights, the more
she liked them. She was beginning to see them as individuals. As
men, with all the idiosyncrasies of other people. They were real to
her in a way they hadn’t been before.

She knew that Bear—Sir Bernard—kept many of his
thoughts to himself, but he thought deeply. She saw evidence that
Sir Robert had deep respect for the quieter man and often sought
his counsel before deciding on a course of action. Sir Robert was
also very sharp-witted and although glib of tongue, he was
kind-hearted.

The dragons too, were fascinating individuals.
Isabelle could see the love and respect between the male and female
dragon, and the deep bond they shared with their knights. Each
respected the other, and the quartet was a highly-functioning unit,
aligned in purpose and matched in skills and
temperament.

She never would have guessed anything like that
about knights and their dragons before meeting these four. She felt
blessed to have crossed their path, and doubly blessed by the small
things they were doing for her around the homestead that would make
the long, cold winter so much easier to bear.

After dinner, they coaxed her to play a few
tunes with Bear. They knew a few common songs and were able to do
passable duets while Robert hummed along, smiling and tapping his
foot.

The dragons moved closer to listen, much to
Isabelle’s surprise. She saw the sky blue of Lady Tildeth’s hide
out her back window and realized Sir Growloranth had been watching
from the side of the house for some time when he opened his eye and
winked at her through the side window. If he hadn’t moved, she
would not have been able to see him against the dark night outside.
He was just that stealthy.

Sadly, the evening had come to an end when she
couldn’t contain a yawn. The men noticed right away and made their
departure. It was kind of them to consider the fact that she’d had
a very long day, but in a way, she would rather have spent more
time enjoying their company.

As she washed the few dishes and set them to
dry, she thought of the lovely evening they had spent together.
Perhaps they would have another dinner like this tomorrow night.
She could but hope. It was so rare for her to have guests—and never
had she had such amusing guests.

In fact, she hadn’t had this much fun since her
mother had died. That thought brought to mind all she had lost when
her mother had passed, and she couldn’t help the tears that clogged
her throat and fell into the dishwater.

“
She is crying again,”
Growloranth grumbled to the knights as if it was
their fault.

They were all back in the barn except the well
camouflaged male dragon. He was on guard duty, watching from the
shadows outside Isabelle’s house. He could easily see into her
window and was reporting her movements back to the men in the
barn.

“
I don’t like how alone she
is,”
Tildeth observed, compassion in her
tone.

“
We cannot leave her here like
this,”
Growloranth stated.

“
We also can’t force her to
go,”
Robert reminded them all.
“We will have to work on convincing her. She has
memories here that are obviously hard for her to let go
of.”

“
Sometimes it’s better to leave the
memories behind and begin new ones,”
Growloranth said in a subdued tone.

Robert remembered that dragons went off on
their own to mourn, most of the time, after losing their knight.
Growloranth and Tildeth had both lost their first knights and spent
time in the mountains, grieving. They had not stayed in the Lair
where their former knights had lived and worked. In fact, when they
came back, they did not even go to that Lair, but instead, asked
for assignment to the Border Lair after choosing their new knight
partners.

“
Dragons can be far smarter than
humans when it comes to such things,”
Robert observed.