Tor sopped up the fish sauce with his bread. “Do you like it there?”
Isalyn nodded fervently. “I do,” she said. “There is no place I would rather be. I long for the bustle of the city, the way of life. I like the shops, the food, the culture.”
“What culture?”
“Why, entertainment, of course,” she said as if he were ignorant of such things. “There is an entire district where actors portray great works of literature. Dramas, they are called. Have you never seen one?”
He shook his head. “I have heard of them, but I have never seen one.”
She was warming up to a subject she knew a good deal about. “Mostly, there are popular ones that portray stories from the Bible,” she said. “The church has a good deal of control over the content, but there is a district across the river that does Greek tragedies and scandalous romances. The church is angry about it, but they cannot do much except denounce it. No one listens, however. The dramas are performed to big crowds every night from the bed of the wagons.”
He was chewing the last of the bread and fish gravy. “Ah,” he said. “I have seen such wagons. They move from place to place. Sometimes they come this far north. You will see them in the larger cities. In fact, there is an ancient Roman theater near Melrose and I have heard they do great productions there from time to time, but I have never seen them.”
She smiled. “In London, they do the same thing with an ancient Roman theater near the Guildhall,” she said, her expression becoming somewhat wistful. “I miss the dramas. When I am in London, I sneak out of my aunt’s home and take the ferry across the river to see the dramas.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “In London?” he said. “Alone?”
“Of course.”
“You are taking great chances with your safety, my lady.”
She grinned, a delightfully impish gesture. “You sound like my father.”
“He is right.”
Seeing that she did not have his support, she shrugged. “I do not need an escort clinging to me everywhere I go like a shadow,” she said. “I much prefer to go alone and move about unnoticed.”
“You disapprove of escorts?”
“They are a nuisance.”
He swallowed the bite in his mouth, eyeing her. “I was wondering why you had no escort,” he said. “You are having a meal with a man you do not know and there are no soldiers around to protect you.”
She stiffened, just the slightest. “I can take care of myself,” she assured him, perhaps even suggesting with her tone that she was prepared to fight him should he entertain any unsavory ideas. “A woman does not need a man to protect her. Women must learn to protect themselves. They must learn to do for themselves. I do not subscribe to the notion that women always need men to save them and mayhap that is why I was so harsh with you earlier. I should not have been and I have apologized but, truly, do women always need a man to save them? I do not think so.”
Tor was rather amused by her attitude. “That is a brave notion,” he said. “But it could also be a foolish one with the wrong man.”
“Why?”
He lifted his big shoulders. “What if you marry a man who demands complete obedience? What if he does not want you wandering around without an escort?”
She frowned. “I would never marry such a man.”
“Wouldn’t you?”
“Nay.”
“Did you ever stop to think that such a man is concerned for your safety? He does not insist on an escort to control you, but because he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
She had to think on that. “I suppose that can be true,” she said. “But men are conditioned to dominate a woman. That is our world. Do you, as a man, always wish to dominate a woman?”
In bed, mayhap, Tor thought quickly, but he didn’t speak the words aloud. He had a feeling she wouldn’t take kindly to them. Instead, he tried to keep a straight face as he answered her question.
“Men are the stronger sex, my lady,” he said. “That is the natural order of things.”
“They may be stronger, but that does not mean they are more intelligent in all things.”
“That is true.”
Her mouth twisted wryly. “Are you married?”
He shook his head. “Nay.”
“But if you were married, would you dominate your wife and suppress her natural curiosity and strength?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether or not she was foolish and reckless.”
“But how do you determine if she is? Women are just as smart as men, you know. Men can be foolish and reckless, too.”
He couldn’t help the smile on his lips. The woman was a spitfire. He didn’t sense that she was argumentative, but she definitely had an opinion she wanted heard. If she hadn’t been so adorable, he would have grown annoyed long ago.
“That is true,” he said. “I do not mind a woman who is curious and strong, I suppose, but I draw the line at reckless and stupid. Whether or not you want to agree with me, the fact of the matter is that this world can be a dangerous place and women need protection from time to time. It is not an insult, simply a matter of fact. And some women do not mind having a man for protection.”
Isalyn couldn’t disagree. As the fifth course arrived, this one an apple and cheese tart, she picked up her spoon and delved into the dish.
“Nay, some do not,” she said. “And there is nothing wrong with it. I know that mayhap it hasn’t been the best decision for me to travel on my own, but I find something emboldening about it. I am bright and educated, so why should I not be in command of my own life and my own destiny?”
Tor was already halfway through the delicious tart. “What does your father have to say about that?”
She seemed to deflate a little. “He does not like it,” he said. “He tells me that I will never find a husband if I continue to behave like a rebel, but I do not care. I do not much care about marriage. But if I do marry someday, he will be a man who will treat me as an equal, not as a possession.”
“Then he will be a unique man, indeed.”
“Mayhap I shall find him, someday,” she said. “I only hope I am still young enough to enjoy it.”
He looked at her, thinking that she was perhaps being suggestive in that comment, but she just started giggling. She was absolutely charming, opinions and all, and he grinned at her.
“As beautiful as you are, I am sure you will have no trouble at all,” he said. “If I come across such a man, I will send him your way. Where shall I send him?”
“London,” she said flatly. “I do not intend to remain in the north any longer than necessary.”
“Did you come here for a purpose?”
She nodded, spooning more tart into her mouth. “My father was unwell,” she said. “He sent word and asked that I come to visit him, so I did. But he is much better these days and I wish to return to London.”
“You do not like it with the barbarians of the north, I take it?”
She shrugged. “As I said, I like it much better in London,” she said. “Life in the north is too provincial for me. I need the excitement of the city.”