“And what about work? You’ve got no business gallivanting around and missing work.” Charlene could say she wasn’t going to forbid him to go, but to me that sounded like he was being forbidden.

“I shall call to my lord’s quartermaster to tell him I will not come for some while.”

“Gentry, son, this is like—do you remember how we discussed Battle of the Nations? And why we didn’t let you go?” Bill said. He leaned down until his elbows were resting on the countertop, so he could give this very stern, fatherly look to Gentry, who was looking at my knees.

“Yea. Because ye believen I am not ready to be tested in battle.”

Bill laughed. “Battle is the one thing I do think you’re ready for. The rest of it—being out in the world, dealing with people out there who won’t accept you—that’s what we’re worried about.”

“Let’s sit down and discuss this,” Charlene said.

Rhys had joked about it, but I don’t think the Franks liked the idea of their little boy growing up.

CHAPTER 31

Gentry

   If I say yea and ye sayen nay, ’tis no discussion,” I said. ’Twas as the Witch said: I needed heat in my blood if I would stand as champion to my lady. Tho we discorded, I would not show uncourtesy to my mother and father, so I bowed to them ere I went to my room. I called the quartermaster and, tho ’twas with little warning, he offered no harsh words, for I was always dutiful in my service to him.

I took from my cupboard a satchel and filled it with what I might need. ’Twas my habit to bathe, but I would not delay Lady Zhorzha. Little time remained, so I returned to the great room, my satchel in hand. My lady had placed her own bag upon her back and stood in the front hall with my mother and father.

“How dare you judge the choices I have made for my son,” my mother said to her.

“Mrs. Frank, I am not judging you. I’m saying I feel like I’m in the middle of an argument that has nothing to do with me. It’s not my job to tell Gentry what to do.” I knew many things more harsh had been said, that Lady Zhorzha called my mother Mrs. Frank and not Charlene.

“I think you need to leave,” my mother said.

“I understand. Thank you for everything. You all were really kind to Marcus and me.”

Lady Zhorzha turned to the door and saw me there. I would look upon her eye to eye, to show her my resolve, but ’twas she that dropped her gaze.

“Be this the hospitality ye taught me?” I said to my mother and father, for it angered me to hear them say such things.

“It’s okay,” Lady Zhorzha said. “You’ve been really great and I appreciate it, but I don’t want to cause problems. I’m gonna go. I’ll talk to you when I get back, Gentry. Okay?”

Ere I could speak, she crossed the threshold. I followed her to the porch.

“Gentry!” my mother called. She was not wroth, but she was uneaseful.

“My lady,” I said. “Wilt thou give my regards to thy mother when thou seest her?”

“Yeah. I’ll tell her you said hi. Thank you.” Lady Zhorzha crossed the street and forthwith drove away.

When I returned to the front hall, my father laughed. I knew not why, but it me angered. For in all ways I shewed him the respect he was owed, but was I to be shewn no respect? Had I not done all that he hoped for me and yet more?

“I don’t want you to pout about this,” my mother said. “You know I’m right.”

They waited, for they would hear my answer. I had come to them a child whose native tongue was a scream. I learnt to speak. I earned proof of my learning, and took up a trade. I was accountable to myself, and oftentimes for Trang and Elana.

From thence I had started, and I grew into a man. They knew all this and still they doubted. I knew only that if I was not ready then, I never would be.

A knight tethered to his father’s keep was more akin to a dog. Much as ’twas an oath I swore to be my lady’s champion, ’twas also that I desired to prove myself. I believed I was worthy, but were I not tested, I could not know. I was Yvain, ever in the shadow of Sir Kay and Sir Gawain. Were I to wait til I was granted leave to go, I should have no adventures. I should live no life but a very narrow one.

“My lady mother, I would not distress thee,” I said. “But thou hast no fair reason to keep me from this journey.”

“I absolutely forbid it. You barely know that girl. And her uncle? The whole situation is . . .”

Where my mother found not the word she sought, my father supplied it: “The situation is troubling. The fact that you don’t see it is a damn good reason to keep you from going.”

“Where’s Gentry going?” Elana said, and came forth from the dining hall, for we had made such a noise she could not keep her mind upon her studies.

“Gentry isn’t going anywhere, except to bed, and then to work tonight,” my mother said. Were her will enough, it might have been so, but ’twas not.

“Nay, my lady, I go this hour to Missouri that I might help Lady Zhorzha.”

“Absolutely not! You are not going.”

My mother clenched her hands fistwise, and I feared she would pierce them with her nails, for I knew them to be sharp. Yet I would not be made to obey like a dog or a child. I gathered my satchel and made sure of my keys in my pocket.

“Son, this has gone too far,” my father said.

“Don’t think you can disrespect me when you live under my roof,” said my mother.

“Charlene, let’s not go there.”

“Oh, we’re already there. Your son needs to know he can be out on his rear just like Carlees, if he can’t obey my rules.”

I recalled well those months when in his youth Carlees went out from hearth and home. They weren dark times, for he was sore missed. To hear such words cast me down. I wished not to be unsheltered and unloved.

“’Tis not love thy mother would deny thee, but freedom,” the Witch said. “She would fright thee with her rebuke.”

“Such a knight as to be frighted by his mother’s plaints,” Gawen said, ever eager to shame me.

“I am not afraid,” I said. Tho I willed it not, I put my satchel upon my shoulder that I might lay mine hands upon my neck.

“You’re upsetting him,” my father said.

“Let him be upset,” said my mother. “He needs to think about this.”

As though I gave it no thought.

“If thou wilt send me out of thy keep for it, I doubt not thy right. I mean no scorn, ne for thee ne for my father, but methinks I am a man, and may do as I see best. I shall see you upon my return,” I said and bowed to them.