“I have said nay. Let it stand. As a matter of gossip I’ll ask you why I should let you go?”
“Only a fool would ask that!”
“Dub me a fool.”
“Because I am a woman—and I ask it.”
He laughed ironically, not looking at her but away over the heath.
“Put that in your girdle with your knife. A woman is no more than a man to me when I cherish the deer.”
She swung closer, and her voice changed to a mischievous, pleading whisper.
“Ah, but Messire Fulk, listen a moment.”
“You may find the verderers more easily cozened when the swainmote meets.”
“Good sir, how young you are!”