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third year of Consul Rudolf. Will it suit your Ladyship?"
     
                  "Belike it will," she said . "Let's have a trial."
     
                  When the wine was poured, Yvette took a sizable mouthful. "Aha!" she said. "This is an improvement over Goodman Vulfilac's small beer — not that I scorn the honest fellow's hospitality."
     
                  Over dinner, Yvette entertained Thorolf wit h tales of courtly scandals in the New Neapolitan Empire. She rattled out as much in a minute as most folk did in five. Thorolf found her talk fascinating, though he some times wished he could get a word in edgewise.
     
                  He also noted, with rising alarm, her execution on the bottle of costly wine. By the end of the repast it was all gone, and Thorolf was sure that she had drunk more of it than he.
     
                  He noted another thing. There were two other tables of diners in the common room. These had somehow gotten wind of the fact that Thorolf was with a noble lady. They turned in their seats to stare until Thorolf scowled them into averting their gaze.
     
    -
     
                  The other diners had departed; Thorolf was wiping his mouth and preparing to rise when Yvette said: "Oh, linger a n instant, Thorolf! Master Taverner, hast some water-of-life in stock?"
     
                  "Aye, your Ladyship," said Vasco.
     
                  "Then fetch a noggin apiece, pray."
     
                  "Countess," said Thorolf, "think you not that you've had enough?"
     
                  "My good Sergeant, I have been on the run for days, and this is my first chance to take my ease in a duck's age! Thank you, Mashter — Master Taverner."
     
                  She tossed down the colorless schnapps with a single gulp, while Thorolf drank his by sips. Then she fix ed him with a purposeful stare. "Tell me, dear rescuer, what meant those yokels of the nightwatch, chaffing you about their virtuous sergeant? I mean, when you clept me Queen of Armoria." She giggled.
     
                  "Merely," said Thorolf uncomfortably, "that they have not seen me strolling with the strumpets of the town, as they have many of mine unwed soldier lads."
     
                  Yvette's glance became sharp. "Are you one of those unlucky ones whose passions veer toward their own sex?"
     
                  "Kernun forbid! I am as avid for womankind as any."
     
                  "Well, then, an you roll not the local trollops, hast a regular light o' love whom you visit for a bout betwixt sheets?"
     
                  "Nay, none." Thorolf stared at his noggin, increas ingly embarrassed by the direction of the questions.
     
                  "Then whom have you fuf-futtered?"
     
                  Thorolf gulped, his wits slowed by drink. The ques tion appalled him; it was certainly not what he had been brought up to consider ladylike. On the other hand, with this masterful woman, he feared he could never get away with the pret ense of ever having been a great lover. He barter!:
     
                  "Well — in sooth — I haven't."
     
                  "What? How old are you?"
     
                  "Twenty-nine."
     
                  "Three more years than I, a man of normal urgings — or so you say — and a virgin? 'Tis a thing incredible. In Carinthia they'd put y ou in a curio cabinet." She beck oned Vasco and ordered another round of aqua vitae.
     
                  "Really, Countess," said Thorolf, "you will rue your overindulgence — "
     
                  "No one tells the daughter of a hundred kings and nobles what to do! But back to your case. W hat's the caush of your unwonted abstinence?"
     
                  Thorolf gulped again. "Well, if you must know, I