"I do not understand, my lord."
"Soon after your flight the Lady Hellayne departed, without a word."
"So you were pleased to inform me."
"I was not pleased," spat out Laval. "How do you explain her flight?"
"I do not explain, my lord. I have not seen or heard from the Lady Hellayne since I left Avalon."
"Then you still aver the lie?"
Tristan raised himself to his full height.
"I am speaking truth, my lord. Why, indeed, should she have left you without even a word?"
Roger eyed the man before him as a cat eyes a captured bird at a foot's distance of mock freedom.
"Why, indeed, save for love of you?"