Chapter 199: What Do You Know of Love?
"He’s really doing this just to show off for a woman?" Heila said, looking at Jacques in surprise. "If he’s badly injured, even if she loves him, she won’t be happy."
"Different people prove their love in different ways, cher," Jacques said after giving their order to one of the nearby servants. Since Heila didn’t seem to be interested in the dishes he ordered an assortment of things for her. "Some fight wit’ swords, some wit’ words, but dey all tryin’ to show what’s in deir hearts, non?"
Heila gave Jacques a puzzled look when she heard his answer. Not long ago, she’d fancied another young servant who worked in the soldier’s quarters but nothing had ever come of it, especially when she began to serve Lady Ashlynn and her station changed drastically within the hierarchy of servants in the castle.
Later, she’d felt a glimmer of attraction to Andrus while they had been fishing but... she drew a deep breath and chased away her thoughts about how things had ended there. Even if she tried to ignore it, the events on the lake still left a strong impression on her.
Fighting should be a thing reserved for defending your life and the lives of your loved ones, shouldn’t it? Fighting like this, to produce a spectacle in the arena as if it proved how much someone loved the person who had caught their heart, it just didn’t sit well with her. If someone were going to fight for her, she didn’t want to see them rushing to their deaths in pointless battles, they should only fight when it truly mattered.
Next to her, Jacques watched quietly as a range of emotions played across the young horned woman’s face. It seemed like the young man on the stage had struck an unexpected chord with the young lady-in-waiting.
"How much do you know of love, ma petite?" Jacques asked lightly. "You have someone special to you? Maybe someone back home in de Vale?"
"No," Heila said, shaking her head vigorously enough to send her long brown curls flying around her face as she blushed furiously at how clearly the witch seemed to have seen through her thoughts. "Maybe I never will. I’m dedicating my life to Lady Ashlynn. There may not be opportunities to find love."
"Ah, der you go again, chained to your lady," Jacques said with an exaggerated sigh. "But I suppose she’s the same as you, trapped in a life without love now dat she’s done bound herself wit’ Lady Nyrielle."
"She’s not trapped in a life without love," Heila said fiercely, restraining herself from saying more only because servants had begun to arrive with several platters of roasted meats and vegetables alongside a veritable rainbow of sweet, savory, and spicy-smelling sauces.
"It’s all right, cher," Jacques said, leaning back on his soft lounge chair and dropping a saucy piece of meat into his mouth as he watched the fight play out on the stage below.
The young man with the sword and shield seemed to be struggling to fend off his opponents’ rapid thrusts and he bled freely from several minor cuts to his forearms and the lower third of his tail but from the determined look in his eyes, he didn’t consider himself to be anywhere near defeat.