Jeanne: Struggle

Druce looked distrustfully at the woman, eager to be gone - after Jason or to find Lucius, he did not care which - and wary of giving information to one toward whom his friend spoke so coldly. Jason was not usually harsh with anyone; it would be different, thought Druce with a wry grin, if I were rough in speaking to her, but Jason must have a good reason. He never has anything but a good reason. And the Guttersnipe is a good reason, in my mind.

So he shifted away, trying to forget what his friend had told him of the Guttersnipe's whereabouts, and yet, of course, not able to. He could not say he did not know, so he showed his hand and said, "I am costing the Lord Ambrosius much-needed labour, as you say; I must be off."

He strode after Jason into the grey wetness, but then he stopped, as Jason had, and looked back at the girl. For indeed, she hardly seemed more than a girl just then, even compared to the youth of the soggy lad beside her, and though nothing about her person reminded him of the Guttersnipe, still he thought of her. How often he had seen her look like that, when the men rode away and she was left alone, struggling against her feelings in the dim light before dawn!

He turned sharply on his heel and threw back, "Seeing to the armour. Jason said she was seeing to the armour." Then he hastened off, angry with himself and with her.