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best me again with your words?”
    “Aye, sir, you lose with such grace that it honors us both.”
    His smile beguiling, he offered her his arm. “Come, my dearest angel, and honor me with your presence while we sup. After being in my brother’s company this past year, I find myself starving for some intelligent conversation that doesn’t involve intrigue or politics.”
    She furrowed her brow as he led her through the crowded room. “Since when does Michael give a single fig for politics? I thought his attention was solely on his vineyards and lands.”
    “Not Michael, my sweet. ’Tis another brother of whom I speak. Well, half-brother, really, but blood nonetheless.”
    “And who is this mysterious brother of yours?” she asked as he led her across the room.
    “Stryder of Blackmoor.”
    She stumbled in surprise. Dear heaven, was there anywhere she could go to escape the mention of that man’s name? If she heard it once more this evening, she might very well become a raving lunatic from it.
    “Are you all right?” Kit asked as he helped her catch her balance.
    Her face flushing from embarrassment, she nodded. “Aye. That was just the last name I expected to hear from your lips.”
    And no wonder Kit was starved for intelligent conversation. From the stories she’d heard, his brotherwas no doubt the type of man who could barely speak of anything save war and his prowess on the field. She could just imagine Stryder posturing in his armor.
    Why, I have the biggest sword in all the kingdom. Come, milady, and let me show it to you…
    That was the most creative and crude seduction men of his kith could manage.
    And if she heard it once more during her lifetime, she might very well take up swordsmanship on her own just to thrash them for it. How she hated listening to men who carried on and on about their glorious victories and derring-do.
    Never mind the size of their…
    Assets.
    “Why not?” Kit asked, his voice laden in irony. “His name seems to be on the lips of everyone else here this evening.”
    “This is very true,” she agreed. “But I must confess that I don’t even know which of the men he is. Not that I care, mind you. I’ve heard his description enough these past hours that I swear I could draw a perfect sketch of him.”
    “Even if you couldn’t, just look for the man with the largest amount of arrogance and you will undoubtedly be looking straight at him.” Kit winked, then smiled teasingly at her.
    Gracious, but he was handsome in a very pretty way. Like a dark angel. His features were so finely boned, his limbs long and willowy. A man of pure refinement and grace, Kit moved slow and gently.
    He paused at a long trestle table and pulled a bench out for her.
    Rowena swept before the bench, sat, then adjusted the skirt of her scarlet gown around her. Kit took the seat to her right, then motioned for a page to bring them wine.
    “If his company is as oafish as the others of his kind,” she asked, “why have you been traveling with him?”
    Kit cleared his throat. “I never said his company was oafish, my love. Only that he has a single mind about his duties.”
    “Of killing people.”
    “Of protecting them.”
    She frowned at the strange note in his voice as he spoke that. “You defend a knight, Kit? When last we spoke you shared my view of them and of war.”
    “I still despise war and those who partake pleasure from it, but Stryder is my brother and I respect him and his decisions.”
    Rowena wrinkled her nose at his noble words, but then that was Kit. Loyal unto the end. “How is it you came to travel with him?”
    Kit looked a bit sheepish. “I had nowhere else to go. Michael refuses to allow me entrance to his home. Even for a night.”
    The news surprised her. “Your own brother turned you out?”
    “Aye, he never cared much for my bastard status or me personally. No sooner had I returned home from my travels abroad than he said he couldn’t afford to feed a man who