"And then," Alex continued, without pause for breath, "she handed them over. Just like that."

All the boys were round-eyed by that point - except, of course, Alan, who was pretending not to look at the abundance of undergarment material. Gary moved closer, holding his hands out for the items. He inspected them, particularly the embroidery in one corner, before draping them over Alex's head and rooting in his pouch.

"I suppose that means I owe you." He counted out several coins into the grinning Alex's hands (the undergarments having been tossed to Alan, who had recoiled in disgust). "Mithros. I need to learn not to bet against such odds again. You'd better give me a chance to win that back, you son of a pig, or Father'll have my head on a platter for having run out of money so quickly."

"I'll explain it to him for you," Jon offered generously with a smirk.

Gary responded with a rude word followed by an equally offensive gesture.

Alex's grin widened. "Come now, it's hardly his fault that you underestimate my extreme attractiveness to the opposite sex." He brushed off Gary's comment about having seen a few desperate looking men hanging around Alex as well. "Tell you what. I'll give you the chance to prove yourself."

Gary considered this. "At what price would that be?"

"Eight gold nobles."

Gary sat back down, looking thoughtful. Eight gold nobles were four off what he'd just paid Alex, but still a sizeable amount. Enough so that his father wouldn't protest so much at the sudden disappearance of all his money. Frankly, he was lucky to get even that, considering what Alex was like with money. "Go on."

"Eight gold nobles for kissing a woman at the ball tonight."

There was a collective sucking in of breath. This wasn't a simple dare, made all the more fun by trying not to get caught. This had a malicious note to it, intentional or not. Alan glanced up from his careful examination of the ground. "Duke Gareth will kill him for disgracing himself and her."

"Hang Duke Gareth," Alex replied cheerfully. "Careful, Alan, at the number of times you mention the man, people will start having you in bed with him rather than Sir Myles."

Gary was just taking off his shoe to chuck at Alex's head when Alan, cheeks flaming in fury, charged him. The choked words "take that back" were audible in the ensuing scuffle. Gary exchanged a half-amused look with Jon as Alan ended up pinned to the ground.

"Don't try to solve everything with fighting," Alex advised him.

"Don't associate everything with sex," Alan spat back.

It was possible that Alex's next retort would have sent the two back to proving a point with fists, had Raoul not chosen that moment to walk in. Alex instinctively released the younger boy, glancing up at the bigger squire, something akin to wariness visible in his face.

"What's going on here then?" Raoul wanted to know, dark eyes expressionless as he looked at the two.

Alan scrambled to his feet and ran out of the room, after pausing to scowl at Alex. The recipient of the scowl simply shrugged. "Oh, you know Alan. He takes offence at somebody inhaling too loudly. We were just sorting out a bet for young Gareth here."

Raoul nodded, his eyes flicking briefly to the door. Gary eyed his large friend intently, but there was no change in his expression. "And?"

"He's going to kiss somebody tonight for eight nobles."

Gary covered his eyes with his hands. The dare couldn't have been better - the idea of getting to kiss somebody of his choosing and getting paid for it was a very attractive one to the young squire - but he was still going to get into trouble. This was Alex's idea of revenge, masked as fun, for having to touch the Lady of Cavall's underthings.

"Oh? Somebody like the Lady Roxanne? If it were me, I'd want more than eight, if I was going to even go anywhere near her."

Gary dropped his hands to shoot Raoul a glare as Alex's eyes gleamed. "Yes. Somebody like her."