Summer clapped her hands to her mouth in horror as the huge knight shouldered his way forward to face Isaac. Surely he wasn’t going to continue his challenge! She glanced at Prince Derek appealingly, but the prince’s face was closed and seemingly indifferent. Even Cora seemed unmoved.
There was a moment of complete silence, and then the prince leaned forward, his chair creaking. “We will meet on the tournament fields tomorrow at noon, then. Sir Isaac, as the offended you have the right to choose the style of combat: jousting or swords.”
He couldn’t recall ever seeing such a man, especially one who was as wide as he was tall, and he doubted that the Knight would hesitate in crushing him under his foot like an unwanted bug. But this was for Summer, and nothing else, and he would at least die or injure himself fighting, if it came to that.
Frowning and clearly pondering over the options available to him, he nodded and straightened up, masking his terror behind a cocky little grin. “I think I’d like to try my luck at using the swords, if I may,” he stated softly, not wanting to put Buttons through the trauma of a jousting tournament; that, and he was a little more talented in wielding a sword.
There was no way anyone could settle back down to dinner after that. Lord Argent led his men back out, arrogantly disdaining Prince Derek’s hospitality, and the Hale knights and castlefolk dispersed, gossiping madly. Summer sat still, trembling slightly and dazed.