His flirtatious greeting was met with ribald responses. He played coy. Jal’s was no mincing pretence of womanhood. As a player he was trained to observe, and he had spent long enough with Isabella to know how she could tease a man. With the briefest of exchanges, a glance here, a wink there, he soon had almost all the men fawning over him.
‘Join us for a drink, pretty,’ one said.
Jal gave him a smile ripe with promise. ‘I wish I could, but I’m paid to run errands and I have one more to do. Perhaps later, if you’re still here.’
‘Oh, we’ll be here all night,’ a disgruntled guard replied. ‘We have to watch the …’ He was silenced by several of his companions.
‘The sunset,’ another interjected. ‘We don’t get to see it often. See we’re guards at the royal palace,’ he boasted. Jal looked suit
