‘No, I mean go making bargains behind your back. I’ve been so frightened these past few weeks in case you never trusted me again, but I had to do it, for Hugh’s sake.’ Her expression hardened.
‘And saddle him with one of Chester’s brood for a wife,’ he retorted as he pulled on his shoes, and then, on a gentler note, ‘You were right, Nell, and Ranulf and I were wrong. It is easier for a woman to back down than a man. Perhaps we’ve both learned lessons from this.’
‘Where are you going?’
‘To find something to eat. I might have made an alliance with Ranulf but sitting at the same board as him still curdles my appetite, and now I’m starving.’ He picked up her shift. ‘Do you want to raid the kitchens with me?’
Smiling, she took the garment from his hand. Their fingers touched. ‘Perhaps there’ll be some pottage on the fire,’ she teased.
‘Perhaps there will,’ he said with a grin, and kissed her.