Chapter 11

Watchers

Bruce entered the bedroom not too long after Clark got there, to find that Clark had already completed preparations for sleep, and was staring out the room's one small glass window.

"So…how're you going to insult the Lady Alicia, Squire?"

Preoccupied with thoughts of another Lang daughter, Clark half turned toward Bruce, and said, "What?"

"Well…the way I've got it figured, you've already insulted Lord Lang's eldest daughters, so why not go for the clean sweep and make everyone here hate you?"

Bruce had Clark's full attention now. "Lady Lois deserved whatever insult she felt, and nothing will make me think any differently on that subject. She only tried to apologize because the castellan forced her to; had she meant it, I would have listened to her and accepted the apology.

"Lady Lana…" Clark sighed heavily, and Bruce snickered.

"What the Hell was that, Clark? You sounded like a girl." Just the way Clark had said Lana's name reinforced the idea that Clark had it bad for the admittedly stunning Lady Lana Lang.

Clark shot Bruce a look that hinted he was taking risks he didn't need to be taking, and continued with what he'd been trying to say. "Lady Lana was completely different. Is completely different."

"How do you know that, Clark? You've barely had time to do anything more than insult the girl."

"But did you hear how she accepted my apology? With a graceful ease. She even had the class to admit it was partly her fault, even after I tried to take all the blame for myself."

"Beauty, grace, a hard-worker…" Clark shook his head, "…a man could do worse."

Bruce decided he'd better try to head this off before it got worse. He knew there was no way King Jor-El would even consider letting the boy marry Lady Lana. True, her father was a noble, but one of the most minor sort. And he'd only marry the prince to a homegrown noble in the first place if he couldn't find a foreign power which would want to forge closer ties with Alemannia by sending a royal daughter to be Prince Kal's bride.

Bruce supposed once Kal married he could choose to have a mistress, maybe even a handful of mistresses, as it had been a royal prerogative throughout Alemanni history. What he didn't know was if this prince would be the type to want a mistress, or if this lady was the type to be inclined to be a mistress.

Bruce realized however that worked out, it was far in the future and thus not his problem. He also realized that Lord Lang's wish to keep his daughter away from Clark wasn't his problem either. His one and only problem was to keep Clark alive and out of Dru-Zod's hands, and if he could manage to teach the boy a few things along the way, so much the better.

Lord Lang, Bruce thought, when it comes to keeping Clark and Lady Lana apart, you're on your own. I'm not going to help them, but I'm not going to stop them. Still, I'd better give the boy a warning.

"A word of wisdom regarding Lady Lana, Clark."

"Hmm?"

"Her father is dead set against any sort of match between you two, for reasons that make a lot of sense. He's afraid of what the king might do should a romance blossom that interferes with any possible match he might make for you, especially now that your marriage could be vital to securing a needed alliance.

"So…before you go off and start singing under the lady's balcony or start reciting bad poetry, keep in mind that your host is risking much to keep you hidden out here. You might not want to repay his loyalty by going after his daughter."

"You've obviously never heard me sing," Clark said dryly, as he tried to joke away the realization that Bruce was right. "And the only poetry I've had time for is the harsh tone of Sir Emmerich's bark paced by the steady meter of sword on shield. I can speak four languages as if I was born to it, but all the words I've studied are trade laws, treaty stipulations, and diplomatic niceties.

"I can dance, in fact I do it very well, but 'Squire Clark' will never get to show that to Lady Lana.

Clark shrugged his shoulders and turned back the lone window. "As much as I sense there's something special about that young woman, I should really leave her alone. Not so much because of her father's loyalty, but because of the lady herself.

"When it comes right down to it, what do I really have to offer a woman? My position and wealth are a result of my birth, nothing more, and those will go to the woman my father chooses for me, not to any woman I might love.

"And once I marry, all else that I am will belong to my wife, too. For when I stand before the altar in the cathedral and swear to 'love, honor, and cherish,' I mean to give it my all: to learn to love the woman I've likely just met days before the ceremony, to honor her as my wife and the mother of my children deserves, and to cherish what she brings to our union, instead of dwelling on what she does not."

"No mistresses?" Bruce asked, though by now the answer was painfully clear.

"None. I'm nothing if not a man of my word. So all we could have together is this short time here, and then Father will sell me off and both Lana and I will have to start all over again with someone new."

Bruce thought of something he'd heard once, a very long time ago, from a woman who lived still in his memory. She had been on her deathbed, and both of them knew it. A newly-minted Sir Bruce was trying to be her strength during her last hours, but he'd ended up leaning on her instead. And as he lamented her imminent passing and the end of all they'd meant to each other, she'd looked up and stroked the side of his face, and said softly, 'It is better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.'

"What was that, Sir Bruce?" Clark asked.

Bruce realized he must have said that out loud, and blanched. That was a part of him that stayed locked away where no one could see it, where no woman could ever find it, and hurt him thus again. That door slammed shut with finality, and Bruce glowered at Clark, telling him it was time for sleep as they had a busy day ahead of them.

The next day was busy for everyone. The household servants spent all day unloading wagon after wagon of supplies, furniture, clothing, and other belongings and then lugging them into the house under the watchful eyes of Marie the head housekeeper, and all three girls.

Clark's day started with more hand-to-hand training with Bruce, and once he was done with breakfast, he found Marie and being mindful of Lord Lang's hurried instructions regarding Squire Clark and Lady Lana, she assigned him to work with the servants who were thoroughly cleaning almost six weeks of road grime from Lord Lang's best carriage, as he hoped it would be needed the next day.

Lord Lang had sent a liveried messenger to the grand ducal palace in Varshova to announce his arrival in the grand duchy and to ask for a brief audience to pay a courtesy call just long enough for official introductions. He wondered briefly if he should also send a note to the Alemanni ambassador, who if Lord Lang remembered correctly, was Lord Eduard Pierzynski, Count of Ellsinore. Figuring it would do no harm, and might help at some point, Lord Lang decided he and his family would pay a courtesy call at the ambassador's home on the way back from the palace…should they receive an invitation to the palace in the first place.

By the time Clark was ready for his evening weapons practice, his filth made Lady Lana's soot-coated appearance from the day before look like the height of cleanliness. Bruce nearly couldn't stop laughing when he saw how thoroughly dirty Clark was.

"No need to ask how your first day of service went," Bruce chortled.

"What about your day, Sir Bruce?" Clark asked, as he slipped on the training amulet and then a few pieces of armor.

"There are too many soldiers for me to train all at once, so I have to break them up into smaller groups and train them an hour or two at a time. It looks like it will be, at least at first, an all day process."

As the two men grabbed blunted practice swords and began to work together, Clanging their swords together as they moved back and forth in what some refer to as "the dance of the swords," they had an audience for a brief amount of time.

Lady Lois watched intently, admiring their sword work, and hoping Sir Bruce might slip a few painful shots past Clark's guard. She wished she could be out there learning with them, but after yesterday's 'discussion' with her father, Lois suspected her days wielding swords were over. She knew his threat to find a dancing master to help her freshen up her knowledge of the currently fashionable dances was not an idle one.

Lana was also watching, but from a different window on a different floor. She had managed to catch brief glimpses of the squire during the day, and had been impressed to find him working as hard as any of the servants on cleaning the carriage. She'd overheard a couple of her father's soldiers talking about Clark's morning's workout with Sir Bruce, and was curious to see how he'd fare in his late afternoon workout after a full day of scrubbing.

Lana knew little about swordplay, nor did she want to, but she watched them nonetheless, wincing each time either man was struck, but doing so a little harder when the injured party was her Clark. Not my Clark, damn it! He's just a squire, Lana. Get that into your thick skull now.

By the time Lana had to stop watching the men and go on to get ready for the evening meal, she'd been sure both men would be bruised once they were done, and she'd been duly impressed by Squire Clark's stamina. It seems like that bull of a man can go all day.

Even the Lady Alicia had managed to sneak a look at the cute squire. She was disappointed to find they were working out too far away from the manor for her to see individual body parts, like the cute butt and the sharply chiseled arms she'd seen earlier in the day as he'd worked on the carriage.

Still, she could recall what she'd seen and imagine those strong arms wrapped around her, just like the main couple in one of her father's books. She was smart enough to know she couldn't tell anyone though, or the squire would spend his days cleaning out the soldiers' stables far out back, where she'd never see him again.

All she wanted was a chance with Clark. She already knew that as the third daughter of a minor lord, her chances of making a good marriage were slim, at best, so she was determined to find a decent marriage with someone she could actually love. Squire Clark looked like her first good candidate.