Page 21 of Falling for the Knight

“Are you this high-handed with everyone,” she snapped, knowing the answer. He was a lord, and Tristan very much acted like one.

His brow furrowed in confusion. Ugh, it was like they spoke two different languages. He clearly had no idea what she meant.

“I appreciate your help, Tristan, I really do, but—”

“Tell me what you meant by ‘girlfriend,’ and I will take you to the falls myself.”

No. Absolutely no way. Travel with him? Hannah could barely look at him without swooning, especially after their banter last night. Besides, she’d never been the type to go for thickheaded men with six-pack abs.

“One of your men will do just fine.”

His response was to make himself right at home, on her bed, no less. The temptation to sit beside him—to sit on him—was hard to resist.

“Nay. My sergeant has heard of Leannan Falls, and it happens to be located in an area that could prove dangerous.”

Hannah tried to think back, but she really knew little of English history—and even less about this region, except . . .

She paled. Holy shit. William Wallace, Robert Bruce. Hadn’t the Scottish Wars of Independence broken out along the border? When had that gone down?

“What is it?”

“Nothing,” she lied. There was no point in bringing it up given how little she actually knew. “What kind of danger?”

Tristan frowned. “The kind that could get you killed. The falls are located on the property of a man who would take great pleasure in using our trespassing to incite a war between us.”

That definitely sounded bad. “Why?”

She tried to move but remembered the monstrosity on her body. And to think this was the simpler of the dresses she’d worn. Hannah would be changing into her shorts the moment they left Saxford.

“I’ll tell you after you explain ‘girlfriend’ to me.”

The man was insufferable.

“Fine.” Hannah tried to think back to earlier times, to bridge the divide a bit. “At one time, men and women entered into a courtship. Do you at least know what that means?”

He shook his head.

“A period when they would get to know each other before getting married.”

“A betrothal.”

“Kind of. But not that committed. They could still decide not to get married. Courtship is considered kind of old-fashioned though. Now . . . well, not now, but in the twenty-first century, people just date.” How to describe dating? “They get to know each other, go out, like to dinner or to a bar . . . that is, a pub. Seriously, you don’t know ‘pub?’” What could it possibly be called in his time? “A tavern?”

Hannah laughed at Tristan’s dubious expression. So men and women did not date in taverns. “If you are dating someone, getting to know them, but not dating anyone else, you are boyfriend and girlfriend. Exclusive. To each other.”

“Married?”

“God, no!” She thought of some of the boyfriends she’d had in the past. One particular stuffed shirt was so full of himself that he actually chastised a maitre d’ who addressed him as mister rather than doctor. That had been their last date. Thank goodness those arrangements had been easily broken. “Nothing that permanent.”

“So boyfriends and girlfriends go to a tavern together . . . and do what?”

Hannah shrugged. “I assume the same thing you do now. Talk, eat, drink.” She left it at that. “No such concept in your time, I guess?”

Tristan tilted his head. “No.”

“So what do a man and woman call each other before they are married?”

“Betrothed.”