Fantasy story with loner male knight and cross-dressing female page

[alias_sqbr]

I didn't watch Dunc and Egg but Cam did, and he found himself thinking about how fun it could be to have a story where a somewhat loner knight (disgraced/unproven/just antisocial, whatever) takes on a determined and surprisingly knowledgable page, who he eventually realises is a girl in disguise, and they have Adventures (but no romance, preferably)

He asked if I knew of any stories like that, since it feels like a really obvious premise, and I felt like I must have seen something along those lines by Tamora Pierce/ Mercedes Lackey etc but nothing came to mind. eg the Alanna series has the crossdressing page part but not the loner knight, Kel doesn't have the cross-dressing, etc.

So I come to you! At this point we're mostly just curious if it exists at all, but actual recs are definitely not unwelcome. Books/tv/movies, whatever.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

Tamora Pierce's Alanna books sort of match this - Alanna disguises herself as a boy and trains as a page, but the knight (prince in this case) who takes her on as squire knows that she is a girl before he does so. But that doesn't have the loner/wandering knight part. Later on there is a dynamic with the female squire and male knight, but because of Alanna in the earlier books, Kel doesn't have to disguise her gender, though she's still the only girl training for knighthood at this time.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, I described those to Cam and he said the lonerness is a key part! The knight finding out isn't a dealbreaker though, I should add that.

[princessofgeeks]

I would read the shit out of this.

I've read a magical fantasy with a male/female team like this though not a knight and a page... I will root around in my brain and my Kindle library and see if I can come up with the title.

[ursula]

Cherryh's Paladin feels like this but does end in romance.

[princessofgeeks]

The book I was thinking of was Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett.

The two protagonists aren't knight and page but the dynamic is kind of what you are thinking of.

I can't remember if the female character has to disguise herself or not, though.

So it may be too far afield of what you are wanting.