Page 18 of Renaissance Bear

Which meant Lord Edward absolutely had to kick Argent's skinny white butt.

Chapter 9

Jon had lost his mate.

He was reasonably confident it wasn't a permanent sort of thing, but they'd been at the lists facing off with that tooth-grindingly-annoying Lord Argent, and then Alis had disappeared. To be fair, Jon wouldn't have wanted to hang around with Argent giving him smarmy smiles, either, but he'd thought Alis wouldn't just abandon him. He'd asked the guy who'd been with her—the man introduced himself as Ronan—but he shrugged away any knowledge of where Alis had gone.

We'll see our mate again,his bear promised him.If we go to the next fights, our mate will be there.

"I know, but…" Jon sighed and lumbered through the fairgrounds feeling particularly tragic about it all.I don't like that Argent guy and I wish she'd stuck near me, that's all.

He didn't know much about 'Lord Argent,' except that the man, like the Black Knight, traveled around to different Renaissance Faires to fight and court and whatever else he did. He wasn't in business the way Jon and Laurie were. Jon vaguely thought Faireswerehis business: that he was a professional actor who jobbed his way around the country by playing elfinlords at the faires. Whatever his deal was, Jon didn't like him. He smelled bad. Arrogant. Stuck-up. Something. Jon wasn't actually sure those things had scent, but hefeltlike they did, just now.

We could swat him,his bear said hopefully.Hard enough that he'd fly into a mountain and be eaten by birds!

I'll keep it on the list of possibilities.Jon was oddly heartened by his bear's…well, he wasn't sure if 'helpfulness' was really the right word, but he'd go with it.

The tavern was packed when he finally arrived. Bar swains—the male equivalent of the wenches, at least according to what Jon had read about Shakespearian-era words—were moving double-time, lifting trays of beer above everybody's heads while the wenches served from behind the bar. After hours, the girls got out from behind the bar, but during the day, male servers worked the floor because they were less likely to get groped. The tavern had been run that way as long as Jon could remember, probably because his mother had been in charge of it back in the day.

Laurie, who was obviously moving more easily today but still couldn't take his knee brace off, waved vigorously after delivering a tray to a group of sunburned fairgoers. "Where've you been, man? I'm working my ass off here!"

"Yeah, that's how my summers usually go, Laur. I'm sweating like a pig?—"

Abear.

Bears don't sweat!"—while you're out gallivanting with the girls. Kinda sucks, doesn't it?"

Wow, he was in a mood. Laurie took half a step back, surprised and injured, but the thing was, Jon wasn'twrong. He just didn't usually complain directly to his brother about it.

For a guilty moment, he remembered their cousin Ashley's frustration with both of them, and how she'd had to be equallydirect with Jon to get him to pull his weight. Getting a wake-up call wasn't all that comfortable. Before Laurie could say anything, Jon added, "I've got to get back to the lists to watch the armored fights, but I can help with the crush for about half an hour. It looks like it's been a great day."

"Yeah," Laurie said, and after a few seconds, shook off whatever he was feeling. "Yeah, it's been really busy all day. I've had to bounce a few dudes for bad behavior, but mostly people are loving it. Especially when the minstrels are here. They're on break for a while, though. I thought Peter was going to pass out from sun stroke. I swear he's got the sense God gave a goose."

"I seem to remember Mom saying the same thing about you." Jon grabbed one of the tavern's bear-logo tunics to pull over his blousy shirt, marking himself as one of the employees, and spent closer to an hour serving the noisy, cheerful crowd. It finally began to loosen up a little as the wind caught scents from the barbecue place down the way, and Jon cornered Laurie again before he headed out. "Do you know anything about Lord Argent?"

"I know I can't beat him," Laurie said. "I've gone up against him at two fairs and gotten my ass kicked both times. Oh, is that why you were all bitchy? Did he give you a smackdown?"

"No, he was putting moves on Alis."

Laurie's eyes widened and his voice dropped. "On your mate? The girl mate, at least?"

Jon hadalmostlet himself forget about the complications of finding his mate, and groaned, but nodded. "Yeah, the girl mate. I still haven't met Lord Edward."

Laurie's eyes got bigger. "Oh, shit, that's why you need to go to the lists. Dude, go! Go go go! Bring him back if you can, I gotta meet this guy! Oh, and also totally kick Argent's butt, the guy's kind of a dick."

"I don't fight in the armored division," Jon pointed out, then squinted at his brother. "Neither do you. How'd you end up fighting him?"

"He only dropped the unarmored fights last year. Before that he liked to do all three of the tourney fights, but you know how beat up you get doing any one of them. I guess he decided two was enough. Didn't want to risk breaking that pointy nose of his again."

Jon laughed. "Again?"

"I ain't sayin' nothin'," Laurie said with aplomb. "Except maybe a couple years ago I decided if I wasn't gonna win, I'd at least leave an impression."

"Bro!"

"Dude." Laurie grinned at him. "Go meet your man."

"I was gonna go meet Alis again," Jon said weakly, but went. Part of himwaseager to actually meet the Black Knight. Aside from that glimpse into the guy's eyes that told him everything, he knew nothing about the man. Nobody did. But there had to be something about him that meant it would work out, because fate knew what it was doing.

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