Part 2! Thank you all for being patient with me as I write this kick ass fic (if I do say so myself -). As I said last time, I'll try to write as much as I possibly can! Thanks again! Now here is part two!
Chapter 6 Huh? Part 2
I sat on my horse in the lists ready for my first match of the day. After my little encounter with Michael that morning, Father had given me a… bit of a talk. This in tells him yelling at me for something I could not have helped. Try to telling him that. In conclusion, I was more than ready to get a little of my frustration out.
My opponent had other plans though. As I waited for the heralds to finish, I watched as a squire ran up to the other knight, speak a few words to him, and then the squire ran back to the halfway line and covered the other knight's shield with a white flag. A forfeit.
Unable to hold my mouth close, it fell limply open. This wasn't fair! I ripped my helmet off and threw it on the ground as Geoff jogged back over to us as confused as the rest of us. I quickly dismounted, ready to give that knight a piece of my mind, but Father grabbed my arm and held me in place.
"I was worried about this." He said calmly. Of all things for him to be at the moment! "I knew a few of the knights wouldn't feel right about joisting against a woman for fear of harming them."
"If I place myself in harm's way I expect them to show enough garishness to strike me!" I snapped, wishing that the coward could hear me, but the loud talk of the crowd made that impossible.
"Come along, Alice, there will be other matches. This only gives you more time to ready yourself for the sword." Father was trying to comfort me now. That was the last thing I wanted. I wanted to compete! I had waited years for this and now after one tournament, I could even get a knight to strike me? How unfair it was. With a small sigh and a sharp glare across the joisting grounds, I turned and followed my little group out.
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My matches in the sword ring were much more successful. For some reason or another though, Michael was not in the sword this time around. I didn't worry myself over it, but I was sure it had something to do with his father. Wat said he was probably just afraid to lose to me again, Father agreed with my opinion, and Kate kept what she was thinking to herself. Roland and Noah had gone off to the archery field already, though I could guess that Noah would have agreed with Wat.
In less time than it had taken me at Rouen, I became champion of the sword. Hardly the victory I was hoping for, but it would do until I could get back to the lists and joist. Unfortunately, I some time kill thanks to my quick winnings in the sword. I wasn't due back at the lists for another hour. So, with nothing better to do, our little group headed back to camp and after Kate helped me remove my armor we returned to the stadium to watch a few matches and size up my compaction.
It seemed like fate wanted to torment me because once we had found a place down front to watch, on the noble side of things, I realized I knew both of the knights that were about to face off. Brilliant. I looked from Michael's dark armor and yellow and black lance to Hector's lighter armor and red and gold lance. Well, at least this was going to be interesting.
"A florin on Hector?" Geoff asked Wat.
"Are you daft? Adhemar is a lot bigger than him." Wat replied. "You're on."
I scoffed. I couldn't believe… well, actually I could believe that they were doing that, but it was still the principle of the thing! Had they no respect? Probably not, but still!
"You want in, Alice?" Wat asked me, of course misinterpreting my response.
"No, I do not." I said through my teeth.
Wat made an odd face that under normal conditions I probably would have laughed at, but at the moment my frustration won out and turned my attention back to the field.
Hector's herald had just finished and Michael's was stepping up to speak. I looked down at Michael's end of the lists and saw something odd; his father was in tense conversation with one of the squires. Michael looked down at them, his posture slumped forward after a few moments as his father sighed and gave the squire an order. The squire raced forward and spoke quickly to the herald.
"Father," I said calling all of their attention to the scene that was playing out before us.
"This looks familiar…" Geoff mumbled with a strange undertone of irony.
"But… that's impossible, isn't?" Father asked him.
The herald quickly stepped forward and covered Michael's shield with a white flag. Another forfeit. I looked up at all of them a million question reflected in my eyes. Surely this did not mean what it had when my father had joisted against "Sir Thomas Colville" as so known as "Edward, The Black Prince of Wales" and "Future King of England".
I could easily see Hector sigh as he lifted his lance to Michael, who reluctantly did the same. Another murmur started in the crowd, both on the peasant and nobility sides.
As if from far away I heard Geoff sigh and say "I'll go find out what I can… once again." He went off, but I didn't bother looking at the direction.
"Come along, Alice," My father was saying as I still stood staring out at the field without seeing it. "You need to get back into your armor soon or you won't be to your match on time."
I nodded and followed him without question, in a bit of a daze as my thoughts reeled. What was going on? Why had Michael withdrawn? Hector couldn't be royalty, could he?
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I returned to camp after my last match in the lists for the day, another forfeit. That made the seventh for me that day. The second knight I faced had actually stuck me, it turned out that he was the green eyed knight from Rouen. He had simply wanted to rematch, but at least he had remained on this horse this time even if he had lost to me once again.
Kate once again helped me off with my armor and I stowed it away in my tent before timidly walking up to where Noah stood with his bow and a couple of arrows stuck into the ground. He was aiming at a tree that had to be at least 50 yards away. In was late in the afternoon, a few matches were still left and I wanted to go and watch them, but I hadn't seen Noah since that morning. I hadn't even been angry with him for setting Father on Michael that morning.
"Noah?" I asked calling him out of his thoughts. He released the arrow that he had knocked in the bow and it hit its mark with a soft thump in the tree, perfect as usual for him.
"Yes?" He asked tensely as he grabbed another from the ground and placed it in the bow.
"I was headed back to the stadium and was wondering—"
"I'm practicing, I'm in the finals tomorrow morning." He replied before I even had finished my sentence. He released that arrow as well, another thump of success.
"Well," I paused a moment, I had never had a problem talking Noah before; this was so strange for me. "I'll see to later…?" I'm not certain why, but it came out a question.
"Sure." He said flatly, not looking at me. I as I turned to go I heard him release a third arrow, but I didn't hear the soft thump as it hit the tree. He had missed.
I didn't turn back to see if I was right as I went on toward the stadium. In hadn't taken Geoff long to find out that Hector… er… Edward II was in fact the Black Prince of Wales and was like his father before him trying to hide that fact in order to compete. I had blushed a great deal after finding this out, but I understood why he hadn't told me. I had already decided to do as my father had done and actually face him again. Everyone seemed to understand that.
When I arrived at the stadium I spotted Hec- Edward, that was going to take some getting used to on my part, leaning on the fence on the lower part almost in the same place that I had been standing a few hours before during his and Michael's match. The only difference seemed to be that he was surrounded by squires, possibly guards, while I had been there with my family and friends. After a deep breath I headed over to where he was.
I honestly had no clue what to say to him now, but I was at least going to try and act normal. The trick was… what was normal now?
I ended up leaning on the fence next to him and asked, "Who's up?" I nodded toward the joisting match that was already two lances in.
He started at me a moment with those bottomless brown eyes of his, searching my eyes for something. "Stephen of Crew and Sir Wallace Thomas." He replied smiling crookedly at me. "I heard about your matches." He added after a moment, not looking at me now.
"Unfortunate as it may be, it appears will be in the finals together the way the other knights are forfeiting against the two of us, Prince Edward." I said acting as though I was watching the last lance of the match before us, but in actuality I was watching him out of the corner of my eye.
"So you do know." He said with a heavy sigh and ran a hand through his messy bronze hair. "I'm rather surprised you don't wish to kill me." He laughed a little. "Perhaps a bit disappointed as well."
I smiled to myself, given the temper I'd shown at banquet I could understand why he would think that. "And risk getting hanged?" I teased as I shook my head. "I think not. Besides I have already cracked one of your ribs, that must be enough to get thrown in the stocks, I really shouldn't push my luck."
He smiled crookedly again. "I should have known that you wouldn't treat me any different." Edward sounded almost thankful for that fact. "And I have your word as a knight that you'll face me in the finals, holding nothing back?"
"Of course." I told him smiling back.
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Edward ended up walking me back to camp, his squires trailing after us this time. We talked about the tournament and who we thought actually stood a chance if they would actually try against us, Michael didn't come up, but that was understandable to me.
"Doesn't that bother you?" I asked nodding back at his squires once we neared camp.
Edward shrugged. "Unfortunately, you get used to it after a while."
"You'll return to England after this, will you not?" I asked next. I had been thinking this for a while now, but I had just now got the nerve to ask. I honestly didn't wish from him to go home, I would have enjoyed him completing the tournament tour as well.
"Yes. My father said I could go along with this as long as no one knew who I was." He laughed once. "We had a bet, I thought I could get all the way to Paris, but it appears that he was right about history repeating itself."
I nodded. "I know all about that. I guess he told about his time traveling with the tour."
"Of course, that's why I knew not to underestimate you in Rouen."
"You didn't even know that I was a girl." I reminded him.
"No, but I knew your father when I saw him."
"Ah." That explained it. "Thank you for that."
"Alice," Edward said stopping and facing me when we came into sight of the tents. I looked up at him a little confused. "I know it's a bit soon to be asking you again, but would accompany me to the banquet?"
The word 'yes' seemed to get caught in my throat for some reason. I should be jumping into his arms and saying something along the lines 'you should have known I'd say yes!', but I didn't. I didn't want to. I had no idea what was holding me back from saying yes to him, the future King of England for God's sake!, but I just ended up staring up at him. A pair of clear gray eyes flashed in my mind.
Edward's perfect face broke and he started stammering an apology. "I-I'm sorry. I-I shouldn't have—"
"No, no!" I said trying to fix what I had done. Had my expression made him see something that had caused that reaction? "I'm just not certain that I'll go to banquet is all. After all of those forfeits, it might a bit unnerving." I said quickly.
"Oh…" His pale cheeks lit with a pale blush at his rashness as he smiled crookedly down at me. "I can understand that. Perhaps I could see you again before I must return home?"
"Yes." I said easily this time, smiling as well.
Edward then reached out and gently took my right hand in his and brought it to his lips, kissing it gently. "Until then Lady Alice."
I nodded speechless and I could feel the fire in my cheeks now. I didn't understand how he could go from stumbling over his words to this… this… prince charming in a heartbeat.
"Farewell, Prince Edward." I managed to say as I took my hand back slowly.
"Just Edward, please." He said with a little cringe at his title this time.
I smiled. "I can handle that."
He turned after once last smile and I didn't realize how fast my heart had been beating until I lost sight of him. Dear God, what was the world coming to? The Black Prince showed interest in me and what do I do? I think of the son of my father's enemy! Surely I had lost my mind, but then again, I had known that.
