The door leading from Cardinal Ugolini's private cabinet to the solar swung back, and David came in. As always when she first caught sight of David, Sophia felt her heart give a little jongleur's somersault. She loved the look of his hard eyes with their suggestion of weariness at having seen too much. But now those eyes were turned toward her, and they were narrowed angrily. "Why were you rude to him?" His harsh tone, when she was so pleased to see him, hurt her. She had no ready answer for him. To give herself time to think, she walked to the small chair Simon had occupied and sat down in it. Cardinal Ugolini, sitting at his carved oak table, spoke up. "Sophia put him in his place by demonstrating to him that she could speak his language better than he could speak Italian, David. There is no end to the arroganzia of these French." David was still looking at Sophia. The midday light streaming through the white panes of glass threw sharp shadows under his cheekbones, giving him the gaunt look of a desert saint. _God's breath, how I would like to paint his picture. At least I could have that much of him._ "Do you think I wanted you to meet him so that you could teach him better manners?" David demanded. "Of course not," she said, "but you do not understand men." David's laugh was as harsh as the planes of his face. "Oh, yes," Sophia went on impatiently, "you have always lived with men, and you lead men and fight against men. But you do not understand how Christian men, especially Frenchmen and Italians, feel about women. You know nothing, for example, of l'amour courtois." "Yes," said Ugolini. "The head of every young French nobleman is full of two things, honor and l'amour courtois." David looked from Ugolini to Sophia and back again. "What is this l'amour courtois?" he demanded. "I should know about it. Why have you not told me?" Ugolini lifted his shoulders in a gesture that reminded Sophia of a shopkeeper on the Mese. "My dear fellow, we cannot guess where the gaps are in your knowledge of the Christian world. That is why it is so dangerous for you to go about in public." David held out his hands in appeal. "You have seen me testify before the pope himself. How can you still be afraid?" He curled his fingers in toward himself, inviting Ugolini to go on. "Tell me about courtly love." _How graceful his gestures are._ "It was begun many years ago by a number of noble ladies of France, and especially Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, who led an absolutely scandalous life," Ugolini said. "She married the King of France, accompanied him on crusade. Costumed as an Amazon, rode bare-breasted in Jerusalem. Jerusalem! Divorced the King of France, married the King of England. Had lovers uncounted besides." _If I had been born into the nobility, I might have been a woman like that_, Sophia thought wistfully. David shook his head as if buzzing flies circled it. "But what has this to do with Simon de Gobignon?"