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her disguise was working and she appeared to be a very fine-looking young man.
    “Hello there. Can I get you anything?” The barmaid’s voice had a breathless quality to it. She was young, perhaps Susannah’s age. Her hair was an angelic shade of pale gold and it curled in the sort of perfect ringlets that women spent hours with a hot iron pressed to their heads trying to acquire. Her lips were red and full. Her wide eyes were blue and fringed with dark lashes.
    She was pretty. Very pretty.
    Susannah, not trusting her voice to not betray her, gave a little smile and let Damien do the talking.
    “Two pints,” he said. The girl glanced at him, back at Susannah, and just gave a dreamy smile and a sigh.
    Damien smiled patiently at her. Susannah smiled as well. Smiles, all around. Strange currents of attraction swirled.
    “Frannie !” an older and more buxom tavern maid hollered, jolting the lovely girl out of her reverie. “Hurry with their drinks or I’ll help the gentlemen myself.” Susannah understood from her hungry look at Damien exactly what kind of help she would be happy to provide.
    Was that a flare of jealous y she felt? No, of course not. Definitely not when Damien, like the rake he was reputed to be, gave the woman a wink.
    “ Are you flirting with her?”
    “Hardly. I merely had a twitch in my eye.”
    “You winked! Flirtatiously!”
    “A man does what a man must do in order to get a drink,” Damien counseled. “If you are to act as a man, you ought to learn that.”
    “I cannot believe you are flirting with another woman in front of me.”
    “As far as anyone knows, Susannah, you are a just a tall young man who hasn’t yet had his voice change or grown hair on his face. Or elsewhere…”
    “Oh dear lord,” she muttered, with an unmanly blush heating up her cheeks. “ It seems my disguise is so convincing that you have forgotten that underneath this shirt and these breeches I am very much a woman. A lady. ” 
    “Oh, I can assure you I have not f orgotten,” Damien said, leaning against the bar, close to her. “In fact, I’m shocked that you have managed to convince everyone else that you are a boy.”
    “Shhh….”
    Frannie approached them slowly, carefully holding in each hand a mug full to the brim of ale, with some of the amber liquid spilling over and sliding down the length of the glass.
    “Here’s your ale,” she said, pushing the glass across the bar. As Susannah reached for it—eagerly, for she was surprisingly parched from that morning’s hard ride—their fingers brushed.
    Frannie’s cheeks turned pink. Susannah’s did too, she was sure of it, for the novelty and strangeness of the situation overwhelmed her. She was used to practiced rakes and hardened flirts with their carefully crafted compliments. Frannie’s innocent interest in Susannah was such a sweet contrast. Complicating matters was the girl’s angelic beauty, which drew second glances from men and women alike.
    “I haven’ t seen you ‘round here before,” Frannie said. By you she clearly meant Susannah. Damien, ignored by the girls, stood to the side, sipped his ale and watched their awkward conversation with a bemused smile.
    “It’s my first time here,” Susannah said.
    “Travel far?”
    “A few miles,” she replied. She had no idea where she was, actually.
    “What brings you this way?”
    At this Susannah grinned and leaned across the bar. “Adventure, ” she whispered.
    “ I’d love to have an adventure,” Frannie said wistfully. It was a sentiment Susannah recognized.
    “It is my understanding that young ladies don’t have nearly enou gh of them,” Susannah said, thinking it sounded like something Damien or any other man might say.
    “Isn’t that the truth! What a nice chang e to have a man who understands,” Frannie said. “My brother Angus is a big old lummox…he says all the adventure I need is right here, serving beer and meat pies. What a dolt. I swear our mama must have