When they returned to the tent, Sir Gavin was standing at the entrance, wearing his usual, jovial expression as if the weighty matters discussed over dinner werenāt troubling him at all.
"Sir Ollie," the shorter, almost stocky knight called as Ollie and Liam approached. "A word, if I may? Lord Liam, weāll only be a moment," he promised.
"All right," Ollie said casually, nodding to the side as he took a few steps away from the entrance to the large tent.
"You did me a kindness once, Sir Ollie," Gavin said quietly, his demeanor becoming more serious now that it was just the two of them. While there were still many people bustling around the camp, fetching meals from the nearby cookfires or tending to the other chores of the camp, the large tent where Baron Loghlan had gathered with his knights and son had become almost a forbidden area that people circled wide to avoid now that the baron had indicated he intended to hold a private meeting there.
"Let me repay that kindness now with a bit of advice," Sir Gavin said once heād confirmed that there was no one close enough to overhear them.
"Lord Liam has been through a great deal recently," the older knight said, reaching up to put a hand on Ollieās shoulder. "In that time, Iām sure youāve done even more to help him than you did for me when I was injured. He respects you, and heās grateful to you for what youāve done."
"I really havenāt done much for Lord Liam, though," Ollie said honestly. "Lady Ashlynn and Lady Heila have done much more to help him than I have. He really has been working hard the past several days, and he hasnāt had much time to spend with me."
"Be that as it may," Gavin said. "He trusts and values your opinion; that much is clear. But the deference heās extending to you is meant for the lady you serve, not for you. You understand?" Gavin asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked into the younger knightās pale eyes. "Youāre a knight, and Lord Liam will soon take his fatherās place as Baron Dunn."
"There are limits to how much you can borrow your ladyās name and power around a man who will soon be a baron," the older knight advised. His tone was light and friendly, like any senior advising his junior, but the hand heād placed on Ollieās shoulder tightened in a grip that held a surprising amount of strength.
"Lord Liam is a good lord," Gavin continued. "He listens to the counsel of others, and he fights hard for his people and his men. Sir Brennus, Sir Padraig, and I, weāve all spent at least one summer campaigning against the demons with him. When he was young and new to the battlefield, he listened well to the advice of his seniors, and now that heās older, he leads well on his own."
"But around you, Sir Ollie," the knight said, furrowing his brows as he looked at the mysterious young knight. "Around you, he acts more like he did when he was new to the campaign trail. That worries me, and likely his father too."
"It would be best if you let Liam take the lead as the lord heās meant to be," Gavin concluded, letting go of Ollieās shoulder to give him a friendly pat on the back. "Lord Loghlan wonāt take it kindly if you continue to overstep, and youāll only make things harder on Lord Liam in the end. Even if youāve become friends, Liam wonāt forgive you if you become a wedge between him and his parents. You understand, Sir Ollie?"
"I understand," Ollie said with a bemused expression on his face. "You all care for Lord Liam a great deal, and youāre worried that heās already in a great deal of trouble. Youāre afraid that Iām going to make it worse for him instead of better."
"Just so," Gavin said as he turned back towards the entrance of the tent. "As I said, I owed you a small favor for your kindness before. Take this advice as balancing the scales between us," he said, pausing briefly at the entrance to the tent. "Because whatever comes up next, I have to do whatās right for my village and my lord," he said, drawing a clear line in the sand with his words. "And I canāt hold back on account of an unsettled debt between us."
"Thereās no debt, Sir Gavin," Ollie said, nodding in understanding. He hadnāt mentioned bringing the man dinner during the tournament to create any kind of debt between them in the first place, but he was glad to see that the knights of Dunn were the sort of men who repaired even small favors with kindness in turn. "And I appreciate your advice, truly. I wonāt squander it," he promised.
Ollie wasnāt just humoring the man. He still didnāt know how to navigate the expectations of other knights and lords, and the lessons Sir Thane had given him on etiquette could only carry him so far. Thus far, Ollie hadnāt put much thought into his position, and heād been as free with his words as he would have been with Lady Ashlynn and the coven, but clearly doing so had ruffled some feathers.
More than that, however, it looked like his efforts to support Liam had actually had an opposite effect, or at least theyād had some unintended consequences of appearing to undermine the young lordās authority before the people he would one day lead. It wasnāt something that Ollie had intended to do, and he took Sir Gavinās lesson to heart in the spirit in which it had been offered.
Inside the tent, Ollie was briefly but pleasantly surprised to find that the ladies of the Dunn Court were still present. In Lothian City, it would have been incredibly rare for any meeting of the Lothian Court to include wives or daughters.
Ollie had lost track of how many times heād been told that they didnāt need to bother with delicate dishes or artistic presentations when cooking for Lord Bors and his barons because āreal menā just wanted the largest haunch of stag possible, roasted so that it was juicy and flavorful, and served up with plenty of bread to mop up the juices.
Baron Loghlan Dunn, however, seemed to handle matters very differently, and each of the knights who were present sat next to his wife, while the young squire, Cadeyrn, stood behind his fatherās chair.
The greater surprise, for Ollie, was the fact that Lady Eira had retained her seat next to Liam, quietly insisting with her simple presence that she wasnāt one of the children to be dismissed from sensitive discussions. Sheād asked for permission to sit at the high table, and once sheād received it, she intended to hold onto that seat, even if it meant she had to forgo the chance to refresh herself before discussions continued.
"Well, now that everyoneās returned," Loghlan said as Ollie and Sir Gavin took their seats. "I think itās time we heard about this letter. So, out with it, Son."