Takes place in the second week of Neal being Alanna's squire.

"We have to keep on top of your academic studies as well as your fighting skills," Alanna informed her squire.

Neal looked up hopefully. "Books?"

Alanna grinned. "Not yet. First you get mathematics."

Neal groaned as Alanna passed over the parchment she had written the problems out on.

"Solve those," she told him. "And be quick about it. When you're a knight, you can't spend all day doing simple calculations for supplies or running your lands."

Neal glared at her and looked down at the paper in his hand. He frowned and scrutinized the handwriting closely. Something looks familiar about this… He gasped and looked up at her with wide eyes. "It's you!"

Alanna suppressed a smile and arched an eyebrow. "Is there a problem with my handwriting, squire?"

"It's you. You sent those secret gifts to Kel. The bruise balm, the dagger, everything."

The Lioness snorted. "You find that hard to believe?"

"Well, no. I always had my suspicions."

"Oh?"

"Firstly, they were all valuable gifts, some containing extremely powerful magic. So I knew it had to be someone with a lot of money, and access to such a strong gift." Alanna, embarrassed, fought the urge to bite her lip as Neal continued. "And I heard about your argument with the king – well, most the palace has, so that's no surprise really…but I figured that from what I've heard of you, you wouldn't give up on Kel so easily."

Laughter rang out from the doorway as George entered the room. "He's got you cornered, lass."

Alanna rolled her eyes at him. "It's impolite to eavesdrop. How much did you hear?"

George grinned. "Enough." He dug a hand in his pocket and retrieved a gold noble, flicking it across the room to his wife, who caught it deftly in one hand and tucked it away. George grinned at Neal. "We had a bet going on how long it would take you to figure it out."

Neal managed a wry smile. "Obviously she won. How long were you betting for?"

George shook his head. "You don't want to know. Let's just say that being sceptical is in my line of work."

"And what's that?"

Alanna gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head towards George before speaking. "We'll save that for later." Changing the subject, she added "So are you planning on telling Kel our little secret?"

"And ruin the surprise in four year's time? Besides, if I did, it wouldn't be a secret."

Alanna snorted. "I should think that much is obvious."

George produced another gold noble and flicked it to Alanna again. She grinned at him. "You should really learn to be more trusting, laddybuck."

"I trust you," he pointed out with a crooked grin. "Not the children though, especially our Aly. And definitely not with my back turned." Alanna shook her head with a smile as he continued. "Besides…"

"Let me guess," piped up Neal. "Being mistrustful is in this mysterious line of work?"

"That it is," laughed the baron. He clapped Neal on the shoulder. "I guess it looks like I should've had more faith in ye, lad."