"Hugh's intelligence was evident from the first day he came to live in my household."
"It was good of you to educate him well and to allow him the opportunity to develop his spice business." Alice gave Erasmus a direct look. "Many lords in your position would have taken advantage of his natural talent for knightly skills and ignored his keen wits."
" 'Tis just as well that I did not ignore those wits," Erasmus said dryly. "I have needed both Hugh's clever stratagems and his skill with a sword many times over the years."
"You have rewarded him well."
"I did not give him Scarcliffe because of his intelligence or his knightly skills," Erasmus said. "I gave him these lands because he gave me something infinitely more valuable. Something I could not purchase at any price."
"What was that, sir?"
"His unswerving loyalty."
Alice smiled. "I understand."
"There have been many times when I have wished that I could give Hugh a gift as fine as the one he gave me."
"Rest assured, he is satisfied with his own manor."
"I do not believe that it is the lands of Scarcliffe alone that have brought him satisfaction, madam." Erasmus regarded her with shrewd consideration. "You are the true healer in this matter."
Alice was acutely embarrassed. "I doubt that, sir."
"He told me much about you when he came to see me in London. He said that you had great courage and daring. He claimed you approached him with a bold bargain."
"Aye." Alice contemplated her next move with knitted brows. "We have forged an excellent partnership."
" 'Tis more than a business arrangement, surely."
Alice blushed. "Well, as to that, we are married, after all, my lord."
"And you love him with all your heart, do you not?"
Alice clutched one of the chess pieces very tightly. "How do you know such things, sir?"
"I myself am not without some wits. When one spends as many weeks as I did believing that one is on the brink of death, one becomes more aware of certain things. More perceptive, shall we say?"
"Only a very intelligent man becomes more aware and more perceptive under such circumstances." Alice sighed. "You are quite right, as it happens. I am very fond of my husband. Even though he can be amazingly stubborn at times."
"Aye, well, he is a man. Some things are immutable. Speaking of my recent brush with death, madam, I wish to thank you for your potion."
"No thanks are necessary. 'Twas my mother's recipe. She bequeathed to me a book in which she wrote descriptions of many types of illnesses. I merely applied the remedy she prescribed for your particular symptoms. I am pleased that you tried it and found it effective."
"Most effective." Erasmus smiled. "You have my deepest gratitude. I owe you more than I can ever repay, madam."
"Nonsense, my lord. I assure you, the scales are evenly balanced."
"How is that?"
"You saved my husband's life when he was but a young boy of eight."
Erasmus furrowed his brow. "I do not recall that Hugh was ever in danger of dying at the age of eight. He did take one or two nasty falls while practicing at the quintain and there was an unfortunate incident involving a bridge and a rather deep stream one day, but other than that he was quite healthy."
"Now that is where you are wrong, sir." Alice smiled gently. "He may have been in fine health as regards his bodily humors, but there are things that can die within a boy even though he continues to live."
"Ah. I see what you mean." Erasmus regarded her with knowing eyes. "You are alarmingly perceptive yourself, madam."
"Nay, my lord, I merely make an observation," Alice said matter-of-factly. "It is clear to me that had it not been for you, Hugh would most assuredly have been torn asunder by the storms that threatened his heart and his soul."
"I may have taught him how to contain and control those dark winds, Lady Alice. But you accomplished far more. You have stilled them with the alchemy of a loving heart."
Hugh strode into Alice's study chamber one morning a few weeks after Erasmus and Eleanor had departed. He had ordered a new list of compliments from Julian. He was eager to try them out.
But at the sight of Alice standing at the window, he came to a halt, briefly transfixed. The graceful words he had so carefully memorized a short while earlier were momentarily forgotten. He wondered if he would ever grow accustomed to the realization that Alice was his wife.
Her lively features were composed in an expression of intense concentration as she studied the chunk of rock crystal in her hand. Her hair glowed in the morning sun. The gentle lines of her body aroused a familiar, aching need within Hugh.
She did not turn to greet him. He realized she had not heard him come into the chamber.
Hugh cleared his throat and searched his mind for the first compliment on his list. "Madam, the glorious fire in your hair burns so brightly that I need naught else but your silken tresses to warm my hands on the coldest morn."
"Thank you, my lord." Alice did not look at him. She tilted the stone she held so that it caught more light.
Hugh frowned. Mayhap he had paid too many compliments to her hair, he thought. She was likely bored with them. He made a note to instruct Julian to be more creative.
"Your neck is as graceful as that of a swan."
"Thank you, sir." Alice pursed her lips and studied the crystal more closely.
Hugh tapped the sheet of rolled parchment against his thigh. Julian's compliments were not having their usual effect. "Your skin is as soft as the feathers of a dove dipped in cream."
"How kind of you to notice." Alice put the rock crystal down on the table. She picked up a large, gray stone and bent over it intently.
Hugh surreptitiously unrolled the parchment in his hand and quickly scanned the list of compliments. "It strikes me that your feet are as small and delicate as the unfurled fronds of small frogs."
Alice hesitated. "Frogs, my lord?"
Hugh scowled at the phrase. Damn Julian and his poor script. "Uh, ferns. As small and delicate as the unfurled fronds of small ferns." He hastily rerolled the parchment. That last had not been the easiest phrase to utter.
"Aye, of course. Ferns. Pray continue, my lord."
"Uh, well, that is about all that occurs to me at the moment." What was wrong with Alice today? She was not responding in her usual manner. Hugh wondered if Julian's skills were deteriorating.
"What of my eyes, sir? Do you think they are as green as emeralds or are they more in the nature of malachite?"
Hugh shifted restlessly. What if it was not Julian's skills that were slipping, but his own? What if he was not repeating the compliments in the proper fashion? "Emeralds, I believe. Although malachite is a very nice shade of green also."
"Thank you. Now, then, what of my breasts?"
Hugh swallowed. "Your breasts?" He generally saved that sort of compliment for the bedchamber.
"Would you say that they are still as delicately curved as ripe peaches?"
"Most assuredly."
"And what of my waist?"
Hugh narrowed his eyes. "Your waist?"
"Aye." Alice put aside the gray stone and picked up a darker one. She still kept her face averted. "Would you say that my waist is as dainty as the stem of a flower?"
There had been something about flower stems and small waists on Julian's last list. Hugh was about to repeat the old compliment when it struck him that Alice was a bit more rounded in some places today than she had been a few weeks ago.
He very much liked her this way, he decided, but he was not certain that she would be pleased to hear that she was a bit more plump.
"I, uh, had not given the matter of your waist much thought," he said cautiously. "But now that you mention it—" He broke off to study her form more closely.