The Sworn Sword

The old knight trotted off, back the way they'd come.

When he was gone, Egg said, ""I thought how you should speak to Lady Webber, ser. You should win her to your side with gallant compliments"". The boy looked as cool and crisp in his chequy tunic as Ser Eustace had in his cloak.

Am I the only one who sweats? ""Gallant compliments"", Dunk echoed. ""What sort of gallant compliments?""

""You know, ser. Tell her how fair and beautiful she is"".

Dunk had doubts. ""She's outlived four husbands, she must be as old as Lady Vaith.

If I say she's fair and beautiful when she's old and warty, she will take me for a liar"".

""You just need to find something true to say about her. That's what my brother Daeron does. Even ugly old whores can have nice hair or well-shaped ears, he says"".

""Well– shaped ears?"" Dunk's doubts were growing.

""Or pretty eyes. Tell her that her gown brings out the color of her eyes"". The lad reflected for a moment. ""Unless she only has the one eye, like Lord Bloodraven"".

"

"My lady, that gown brings out the color of your eye. Dunk had heard knights and lordlings mouth such gallantries at other ladies. They never put it quite so baldly, though. Good lady, that gown is beautiful. It brings out the color of both your lovely eyes. Some of the ladies had been old and scrawny, or fat and florid, or pox-scarred and homely, but all wore gowns and had two eyes, and as Dunk recalled, they'd been well pleased by the flowery words. What a lovely gown, my lady. It brings out the lovely beauty of your beautiful colored eyes.

""A hedge knight's life is simpler"", Dunk said glumly. ""If I say the wrong thing, she's like to sew me in a sack of rocks and throw me in her moat"".

""I doubt she'll have that big a sack, ser"", said Egg. ""We could use my boot instead"".

""No"", Dunk growled, ""we couldn't"".

When they emerged from Wat's Wood, they found themselves well upstream of the dam. The waters had risen high enough for Dunk to take that soak he'd dreamed of.

Deep enough to drown a man, he thought. On the far side, the bank had been cut through and a ditch dug to divert some of the flow westward. The ditch ran along the road, feeding a myriad of smaller channels that snaked off through the fields. Once we cross the stream, we are in the Widow's power. Dunk wondered what he was riding into. He was only one man, with a boy of ten to guard his back.

Egg fanned his face. ""Ser? Why are we stopped?""

""We're not"".