“Brave heart, I did not call in vain. What care I so long as we are together?”
She drew her hand across his cheek.
“Fetch your harness. I will help you to arm, and I can keep watch.”
He brought his armour, bassinet, gorget, breast and back pieces, shoulder-plates, arm guards, gauntlets, cuishes, genouillères, greaves, and solerets. Isoult was as good as any squire. She climbed on the stool every half minute to keep Merlin and his lousels under view.
When she had fastened the laces of his bassinet she asked him, “What will you do now, great captain?”
“Rescue your clothes, dear lady.”
“And then?”
“Start a few planks and sink the boat, and bring the horses under cover.”
“And then?”
“Bolt all the shutters, barricade the door that leads from the kitchen into the yard.”