Chapter Nine

“I cannot believe it,” Thomas said, as he took the gold and the one silver platter that Charlotte’s family owned and prepared to melt them down into small pieces. “One boot buckle?”

“I am certainly glad I had the presence of mind to save it. I wish we had the other, I know if we did, Julien would certainly have given it to you. He is truly grateful to you, Thomas, for saving his life.”

Thomas shrugged. “I would like to hear that from his own lips, once.”

“You’ve never really spoken to him! Besides, he has been in so much pain, it takes all he has in him to speak when absolutely necessary.”

“Like when he asked your name? Or did you volunteer that piece of information?”

“What has gotten into you?” Charlotte stormed over to him, though she was forced to step back by the heat of the forge. “I have never seen you judge any man so harshly, let alone one in such pitiable circumstances.”

“Yes, pitiable. He is recovering and will be returned to claim his kingdom. My heart bleeds for him.”

“THOMAS!” Charlotte glared and turned to leave. “I am sickened by your attitude. I cannot stand to be in the same room with you! Either you tell me right now what you have against the man, or I am leaving!”

“Without your treasure?”

“I trust you with it,” she replied, heading for the door. “I’ll have Father stop by and pick it up when it is finished. Or you can bring it by and perhaps speak to this man you know nothing of, if it pleases you to actually give him a chance.”

“He is a man who lived, until very recently, in a world we cannot imagine, you and I!” Thomas shouted. “He is a man who could buy an entire family’s LIFE with one buckle from his boot. How does one sleep at night living in such excess?”

Though Charlotte had asked herself the very same question earlier, she gave him the same answer she had come to in her assessment of it. “Because he knew no better. He was raised to it. Kept away from the truth of the struggles of the everyday people by his parents. He’s been isolated, tutored and schooled in subjects you and I could not even imagine to be certain, but his education has never covered the subject of reality. It is something he is currently taking a quick study course in, and suffering all the while doing it.”

Thomas looked away.

“You know his body will never be what it was. I would think that you, of all people, would have some…” She stopped.

“Say it. Say I am less than a man because of my leg, Charlotte. You have always thought so, admit it.”

Emotion clouded Charlotte’s eyes now; anger, not sorrow. “I have never, not for an instant in my life, Thomas Vallery, thought you were anything less than a man.” She waved her hand and rushed from the smithy, leaving Thomas swearing at himself as she went.

Now was his moment. What would he do?

“Charlotte, wait!” he called after her, and he did his best to hurry. Though impeded by his limp, he moved faster than he thought he ever could and soon held her by the arm.

“Let go of me! Thomas!” He spun her around, grasped her by the waist and drew her to him. In an instant he was kissing her, and Charlotte’s eyes flew open in shock. At first she tried to push him away, but after a moment, the feeling of his hands upon her and the taste of his lips, salty and hot, excited her in a way she could not have imagined.

She was just about to begin kissing back when a voice in her head whispered, “But this is Thomas…”

She waited, still and silent, until he saw she was not returning his affection. Quickly, he released her.

He looked at her, eyes gleaming with tears borne of sorrow. “Is it because I will never be a knight?”

“You have always been and will always be Sir Thomas to me,” she whispered, “And that is why I… I’m sorry, Thomas.” She turned and ran as fast as she could, until there was sufficient distance between them that she felt she could breathe again.

She leaned back against the trunk of a tree, gasping for air. “Why?” She angrily brushed burning tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand. “Why did you have to do that? Why must things change?”

She sank to the ground, thinking of Thomas, thinking of Julien, and thinking of all the pain that was to come upon their village in a few days’ time when old debts could not so easily or quickly be repaid.