Page 23 of The Blacksmith

“Roland was not nearly as skilled,” she said honestly, joining him along the outer battlements.

“My first master . . .”

“Your father,” she clarified, noticing his reluctance to speak of him as such.

“Aye, my father. He served King Henry, and his own master was considered one of the most skilled blacksmiths in all of England at the time.”

“And so he passed those lessons down to you.”

Lance didn’t answer.

When she glanced at his profile, Idalia was not surprised to see his tight-set jaw, and though she knew the topic was one he did not wish to discuss, curiosity forced her to press him.

“You do not care for your father.”

His breathing grew noticeably heavier, making Idalia immediately regret the question.

“I am sorry.”

“You’ve no need to apologize, my lady.”

“My lady?”

“Idalia,” he clarified, and the familiarity of her name coming from his lips made her very core clench in anticipation.

Anticipation? Nay, never that.

“It was an impertinent question.”

He did this thing then, with his tongue, that Idalia had seen him do before. Not a licking of his lips precisely, but for a moment she spied his tongue as he wet first the top and then the bottom lip.

She was staring.

“Nay,” he said, “I do not like my father.”

Even though she’d suspected as much, to hear him say it so bluntly . . .

Her own father could also be quite difficult at times. And as her mother became more and more ill, he was getting worse. But she liked him, of course. Loved him dearly.

How could a father push away his son so effectively?

“Yet he taught you many things?”

“Aye.”

He would say no more on the matter, so she tried a different topic.

“And your mother?”

Lance closed his eyes, and Idalia silently cursed at herself for having chosen poorly.

“She is no longer with us,” he said, his voice soft.

Idalia’s heart sank. “I am so very sorry.”

She was filled with the desire to reach out and touch him. His hand, his cheek. Anything that might offer comfort. Of course, she resisted the urge.

To touch him would be to give in to this madness consuming them both.