Page 7 of Renaissance Bear

Bear, Jon's bear said sulkishly.

Bears don'thavehorns,Jon said. The bear stared at him, its eyes practically brimming over with tears and its jaw all but trembling, and he groaned.Fine. Grab the bear by the horns.

The bear beamed.

Laurie snickered. "Your bear's giving you grief, isn't it?"

"Swear to God if I said I was trying to be quiet as a mouse?—"

Bear!

Jon, aloud, said, "Bears aren't notoriously quiet!" and the bear glared at him.

Mice squeak!

"And bearsarepretty quiet," Laurie added. "For something their size, I mean."

"Now whose side areyouon?"

"Yours," Laurie said fondly. "Look, finish that beer and let's get back to the tavern. You can play music and brood handsomely and hope that one of your mates comes to admire you."

Jon perked up. "Do you think that'll work?"

"God, no. But you can try." Laurie lurched to his feet, hobbled over to Jon, and offered him a hand up that ended in a quick hug. "Seriously, Jon, it might be overwhelming and unexpected, but congratulations, man. I want you to be happy, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, sure," Jon mumbled into his brother's shoulder. "You just want the rest of us paired up so Mom has other people to ask for grandkids."

"Nah. I know I'm her favorite and she really only wantsmeto have 'em."

"Oh my God, bro, you suck."

Laurie cackled. "Yeah, I know. Now come on, let's get back to work." He limped toward the front of the tavern, and Jon, shaking his head, followed behind. Odds were good that either Lord Edward or the green-eyed woman would show up at the tavern eventually. Most people who worked the faire did, eventually. Although the woman was more likely: Jon knew Lord Edward guarded his identity carefully, and that there was a betting pool of people trying to figure out who he was that ran at the faires he attended. So maybe he wouldn't show up, but the woman probably would. But probably not tonight.

He'd just about convinced himself of that as a handful of the local 'bards' arrived. A cheer arose and one of them waved Jon down. "Come on, get your lute, we need somebody who can play strings better than Charlie here."

Charlie played the banjo better than Jon could ever hope to play anything at all, but he laughed anyway. "And somebody who can sing better than Peter there."

Jondidsing better than Peter, but wasn't about to say so as another laugh went up. He went behind the bar counter for his lute, tuned it up while the others argued over what song to start with. He knew from experience they'd still be arguing in forty minutes. Instead of encouraging them, he ducked his head over the lute and struck a few chords before starting in with a chorus that he knew would drag them all in. "Will ye go, lassie, go?"

The others—Peter on the fiddle, Charlie on the banjo, Shorty on the bodhrán—lifted their voices in aggravation that he'd made a start, but everybody was all in by the middle of the chorus, and as the little band began to sing, so did the gathered faire workers. Jon bent over his lute, concentrating on the four strings until, several songs later, a soprano rose in a counter harmony to the song. He lifted his head, smiling, and for the third time that day, looked straight into the eyes of a fated mate.

Chapter 4

Most nights after a battle as the Black Knight, Alis would lose the armor and go back to the RV to collapse dramatically for the rest of the evening. Sometimes Jasmine would carry on playing Lady Alessandra for a few hours, so that her absence wasn't noted post-Black-Knight-fight, but as often as not, both twins would end up giggling over popcorn and watching movies while rehydrating for tomorrow's faire.

That evening, though, as Alis had retreated to their changing room and eyed her gown, Jasmine had given her a wicked grin. "Gonna go find your hot sword boy?"

"And abandon my sister to a boring evening of coding all on her own? Would I do that?"

"Absolutely."

Alis had laughed and hugged Jasmine. "Are you sure that's okay?"

"Well, they tell me it's good for twins to develop their own personalities and interests, you know. Maybe it's about time we did that."

Alis, an elementary school teacher, stared at her sister, a computer programmer, until Jasmine laughed. "Yeah, okay, maybe we've got that covered. But also maybe I have a hot date I'm not telling you about, but I need you out of the RV for it."

"Do you?" Alis lifted her eyebrows hopefully.

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