Joining by Johanna Lindsey Page B

so.

Twelve
    Nigel suggested a
hunt to amuse the visiting knights for the afternoon. This would not be the kind of hunt that Milisant enjoyed, though, since her father only hunted with his falcon these days, and the falcon, therefore, did all of the work, and thus got all the enjoyment out of it.
    Jhone agreed to go along. She did have a sweet, well-behaved tiercel that she used for such occasions. He was a smaller hawk, and so not really classed as a hunting falcon, which were the much larger and more aggressive females of the species.
    Milisant declined to join the hunt. She had had more than enough dealings with her betrothed for one day, plus she had never taught her own bird to hunt, kept her only as a pet. It was named after the first Rhiska that Wulfric had killed, and thus she perhaps pampered the second Rhiska more than she should. She also doubted her father would appreciate if she brought her bow along instead, so being unableto contribute to this hunt, she saw no purpose to her accompanying them.
    Wulfric thought otherwise; in fact, detained her when she tried to leave the hall after the meal was finished. “You
will
join us.”
    Two orders from him in the same day! Did he think to control her every movement? Or did he think she was incapable of making logical decisions on her own?
    But she did not owe him an explanation. “I prefer not to,” she said, which should have sufficed, but nay, not with him.
    “Your father has informed me that you require a month to become accustomed to me ere we marry. If that is so, then you will needs make the effort to be with me to accomplish this—or I will think you do not need this time, after all, and we can proceed with the wedding.”
    She wanted to reply that growing acquainted did not require all of her waking hours each day, but it was too dangerous. Keep him company or get married immediately was what he was actually saying, and in that case, she would, of course, opt for the lesser of those two despicable choices.
    So they all adjourned to the bailey where the falcons and horses were being fetched. Milisant had to fetch her own horse, since none of the stable lads would do other than toss Stomper his feed from a distance. She would have taken a smaller mount, except Stomper did need the exercise.
    It was well known to all who lived in Dunburh how she’d come to own the destrier, just not a pleasant memory, at least for her. He hadbeen a horse much abused, belonging to a visiting knight who’d used brute force to control him, but had done so one time too many.
    ’Twas ironic that the horse should go mad and try to kill the knight in her presence. The animal had no longer been of any use to the knight. He had known that and ordered it killed. She had intervened, claiming she could tame him. The knight had, of course, scoffed, and told her if she could tame him, she could have him.
    Mayhap she should not have done it so quickly. The knight had been enraged at how easily she had mastered his animal. Much as she’d hated the idea of any animal belonging to such a vicious man, she had offered to give him back to soothe the man, whom her father had hoped to hire as a household knight. His pride had refused to accept her offering. Nor had he stayed in Dunburh, but left immediately.
    Her father had, of course, been very wroth with her for causing his abrupt departure. He’d later apologized when they’d learned that that particular knight had found employment elsewhere, and had betrayed his employer, opening the lord’s keep to an attacking army.
    Since then, Milisant had equated vicious tendencies with deceit, and considered anyone who showed such qualities to be untrustworthy. And as far as she was concerned, her betrothed fell into that category.
    As usual, it took her a while to get the horse saddled, something else she had to do on her own, other than having the saddle fetched for her. Then it took a while longer to acquaint himwith her skirts, which he was