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arms of the important personages among them on sight, he could find himself in
trouble if he showed too blatant an ignorance.
Brian slipped them through the front door and Jim discovered that the large
common room of this establishment was almost filled
shoulder-to-shoulder standing room only with men, most of them in quite
resplendent clothing. Jim, not someone who ordinarily paid much attention to
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how he was dressed, was suddenly very aware thatneither he, Brian, nor Sir
Giles were anywhere near respectably adorned, in terms of their present
company.
Brian was leading them around the walls toward the staircase to the upper
floors at the far end of the room, when his sleeve was suddenly caught by one
of the brilliantly dressed men there.
"Hold, fellow!" said the individual. "Keep your place. Speak to the steward
when he comes by, and if so be it you have some business here, speak it to
him!"
"Did you call me 'fellow'?" flared Brian, "Take your damned hand off me. And
just who the bloody hell do I have the dishonor of addressing?"
The other's hand let go.
"I am Viscount Sir Mortimer Verweather, f& " the other trembled on a
reiteration of the word "fellow," but avoided it "and not to be spoken so by
any hedge-knight! I can trace my lineage back to King Arthur."
Sir Brian told him in fulsome scatological terms what he could do with his
lineage.
"As for me, m'Lord," he concluded, "I am of the Nevilles of Raby; and need
look down in the presence of no man. You will answer to me for this!"
Both men were now grasping the hilts of their swords.
"Willingly " Sir Mortimer was beginning, when a stout, very well dressed man
with a heavy silver chain around his neck and some sort of medallion hanging
from it pushed his way between them.
"Stop this at once, gentlemen!" he ordered fiercely. "What? Brawling in this
of all chambers " He checked himself suddenly. "Sir Brian!"
His eyes had rested on Brian's face.
The change in his tone of voice was surprising, although the sternness
remained. "You left us but half an hour since. I did not look to see you back
so soon "
"As it happens, Sir William," answered Brian, letting go of his sword and
speaking in a calmer voice, "I've already found and have with me both the
gentlemen that were spoken of."
"Excellent!" said Sir William, smiling. "Sir John will want to see you
immediately. Come with me."
About to leave, he turned back to look at Sir Mortimer.
"As for you, m'Lord," he said sternly, "it would not bear you amiss to
remember to mind your manners in this place. Sir John will see you when he
sees you."
He turned back to Brian. "Come, you and the two you bring." He led the three
of them to and up the staircase, with the gaze of all eyes in the room
following.
Jim found himself feeling ill at ease as he mounted the staircase behind the
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substantial and dignified figure of their guide. In fact, "uneasy" would not
be too strong a word to put on the present state of his emotions.
He had been aware of, and also found useful, the instinctive dragon fury of
his dragon body.He had also found himself thoroughly caught up in the battle
with the raiders outside Sir Brian's castle, to the point where he had not
noticed until some time afterward, some cuts and bruises, and the places where
his ill-fitting plate armor had scraped his skin raw.
But a twentieth-century upbringing on his own world had badly prepared him
for this kind of society; where it seemed you had to be ready to explode into
fury at a second's notice.
His training as he was growing up had been the other way around.
In fact, when James and Sir Mortimer had been standing toe-to-toe downstairs,
Jim's first thought had been how he could smooth over the confrontation,
though he found himself beginning to get his back up in response to Sir
Mortimer Verweather, as the exchange continued.
He decided now that, somewhere along the line, he was going to have to
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