The Squire's Tale by Gerald Morris Page B

Alisoun, her name was—stopped talking. She chattered about the other knights she had ridden with, their weapons, their admiration of her beauty, and especially about their fights. Terence, who had developed a deep dislike for Lady Alisoun, heartily wished that things had happened differently at the well.
    When the three knights had ridden up to the well, the three ladies had smiled and welcomed them graciously. The lady of about thirty-five years swept a low, elegant curtsey and said, "We welcome three questing knights. Come and water your horses."
    Sir Marhault bowed. "We greet you, fair ladies, and thank you." The ladies waited in silence while the travelers dipped water from the well. Then Sir Marhault turned back to the lady who had spoken and said, "If we may ask, how came you to know that we are on quest?"
    The lady smiled and answered, "No knight ever finds this well save he is on quest. When you are refreshed, each of you will choose one of us to ride with you, and we shall take you to find adventures. At an arranged time, we shall return here to tell our tales. We are the Three Questing Ladies."
    Sir Marhault looked startled. "This is what you wish, my lady?" he asked. She nodded and smiled again. He looked at Gawain and Tor. "What say you, friends?"
    "I say the same thing I said when Morgan sent me this way: we have to try it, or we'll wonder the rest of our lives what would have happened," Gawain said.
    Tor and Sir Marhault nodded. Terence glanced at Plogrun and was surprised to see the dwarf's face rigid with impotent fury. The dwarf's eyes were fixed on the eldest of the ladies.
    "Shall we say, then, that we return in three months' time?" asked the lady who seemed to speak for them all. The knights looked at each other and nodded. "Very well," she continued. "Now you shall choose. Who is first?"
    For a moment, none of the knights spoke. Then Sir Marhault said, "Sir Tor, you choose."
    "Very well," Tor said. He looked thoughtfully at the three then said, "I am the youngest and least experienced of us, and so I choose the most experienced of you." He looked at the ancient lady. "Should you like to accompany me, madam?"
    A glow of triumph in her eyes, the old lady rose and laughed. "I knew it! I willed you to choose me!"
    "Glory and saints preserve us!" Plogrun interjected with loathing. "Of all the women in the world, you choose this one!"
    "What—?" Tor began, but the woman cut him off.
    "And it's a good thing he did, too," she retorted. "I'll have my hands full trying to unlearn him whatever foolishness you've been drilling into his head."
    Plogrun turned a deep red and said, "Sir, if you please, perhaps you'd like to choose someone else."
    A muscle quivered at the edge of Tor's mouth, and he said, "Are you acquainted with the lady already?"
    "Lady Lyne here—if you can call her a lady, and if you think it's ladylike to spend more time with swords and lances than with sewing and music, then I don't know where your wits have gone—as I say, this
lady
and I met some years ago."
    Tor raised his eyebrows and started to speak, but again the lady spoke before he could say anything. "Not so long ago that I don't remember how your precious Sir Linas ended up on his back in the dirt. I'll swear you taught him all you knew, too."
    "Humph! As if anyone could teach that dolt. If I
had
taught him, he would have had your Sir Monocus down in a trice!"
    "Plogrun," Tor said firmly, "I will have no squire serve me who is uncivil to a lady."
    Plogrun clamped his mouth shut, still seething. The lady looked triumphantly at the dwarf, then said to Tor, "Quite right, Sir Tor. I see no need for a squire at all, in fact."
    "Even," Tor continued, still looking at Plogrun, "when the lady is herself uncivil." Lady Lyne reddened, and Plogrun's eyes gleamed. Tor turned back to the lady. "Which direction, madam?" he asked politely.
    Without speaking, the lady pointed south and lightly mounted her horse. Tor gave Gawain one expressive look,