"What are you doing?" he asked when she continued to pull at her gown. "Hiding my hands from you."
"Why?"
"I don't want you to see my scars. They're ugly," she announced. She pressed her cheek against his shoulder. "You smell nice, Royce. Like the outdoors."
Royce ignored the compliment and reached around her to take hold of her hands. He forced her to open her fists, then looked at the marks. He thought her skin must still feel tender, because the palms were bright red.
When he didn't immediately tell her what he was thinking, she whispered, "They're ugly, aren't they?"
"No."
She leaned away from him so she could see if he was teasing her or telling her the truth.
Royce almost laughed when he saw her disgruntled expression. A lock of hair hung over her left eye, and she looked half asleep.
"You have to tell me the truth," she announced. "They're ugly."
"No, they aren't ugly."
"They aren't pretty."
"No."
"Then what are they?"
His smile was filled with tenderness. "They're just scars, Nicholaa."
She was appeased. He kissed the frown away from her brow.
She smiled with pleasure. "I'm no longer perfect," she said in a cheerful voice that made him want to laugh again. "What say you to that?" She didn't give him time to answer. "Do hold still, Royce. You make the room spin when you move like that."
Since he hadn't moved at all, he didn't know how to correct that problem for her. He was still looking at her hands when he noticed the hard calluses on two of her fingers.
"Where did you get these calluses?" he asked.
The top of her head bumped his chin when she turned to examine her left hand. "What calluses?" she asked.
She was nearly doubled over in her bid to see her hands. It obviously hadn't occurred to her that she could have lifted her arm.
He controlled his exasperation. "The calluses on your other hand, Nicholaa."
He lifted her right hand. She frowned as she stared at her fingers, then smiled. "Oh, those calluses. They're from the loops, of course. Where else could I have gotten them?"
She'd lost him with that explanation. "What loops?"
"The ones my two fingers fit through."
He closed his eyes and prayed for patience. "But what do the loops belong to, Nicholaa?" he prodded again.
"My sling."
"Your what?"
She cuddled up against his chest, wondering why he'd gone all tense on her. Then she remembered how she'd felled him with a stone. Since she'd decided to be completely honest with him, she guessed she'd have to confess this transgression.
"I hit you with a stone from my sling, but I already admitted that to you. I wasn't at all sorry, either. I could have killed you if that had been my intent."
She paused to yawn noisily, then added, "Thurston taught me how to use a sling. Did you know that?"
He was too busy reacting to her confession to answer her. She'd tried to tell him before, he remembered, but he hadn't believed her. He did now.
"Lord, I'm sleepy," she whispered.
Royce let out a sigh. He decided to put the matter of the sling aside for now and get to the heart of the matter before his wife passed into a drunken slumber. From the look of her, that wouldn't be long in coming.
"Did you want to get me drunk?" he asked.
"Oh, yes."
"Why?"
"So I could seduce you."
She couldn't be more specific than that, he decided. "You thought you needed to get me drunk in order to seduce me?"
She nodded. The top of her head bumped his chin again. She rubbed the ache away. "You are sotted, aren't you? You drank at least twelve goblets of ale. I counted."
She'd miscalculated by at least eight cups, unless she'd kept count of her own consumption by mistake. "Have you ever been drunk, Nicholaa?"
Her gasp nearly knocked her off his lap. "Good heavens no. That wouldn't be ladylike, Royce. Only common wenches get drunk. Besides, I really don't like the taste of ale very much."
"You could have fooled me," he drawled.
She smiled. "Yes, I did fool you," she agreed. "I got you good and sotted, and you didn't even notice. Wasn't that clever of me?"
"You still haven't explained why," he reminded her.
"I think you're very handsome, Royce, but you already know that."
That explanation didn't make any sense. He wasn't irritated, though. Nay, he was astonished. "You think I'm handsome?"
"Of course," she answered. "I have this plan, you see, and you're following it quite nicely."
"And what is this plan?"
"Now that you're sotted, I'm going to confess my lies to you. You're too drunk to be upset. Then I'm going to seduce you. Do you see how easy it is, husband?"
"No," he answered. "Tell me why it's easy."
"In the morning you aren't going to remember what I told you."
The woman was as daft as a donkey. "What if I do remember?"
She frowned over that question a long while before answering. "Then you'll have bedded me and only half remember. Alice says so."
"For the love of God, Nicholaa-"
She poked him in the shoulder. "It's a sound plan, Royce."
He rolled his eyes heavenward. The plan belonged to a half-wit. "Why go to all this trouble, wife?" he asked then. "Couldn't you have just explained?"
"Why must you complicate everything?" she asked. "This is my plan, not yours. We have to do it my way. You're confusing me with all your questions."
She was getting all worked up. Her eyes filled with tears, and she looked as if she might break into a fit of weeping.
He tried to soothe her. "All right," he said. "We'll do it your way. Let's begin with the lies, shall we? Then we can move on to my seduction."
"It's my seduction, not yours."
He didn't argue with her. "I assume there is more than one lie. Is that correct?"
"Yes."
"Which one would you like to tell me about first?"
"The big one."
When she didn't continue, he prodded her. "I'm waiting, Nicholaa."
"I'm not Ulric's mama."
She tensed in anticipation of his reaction. Royce didn't say anything. She leaned away from him to see if he was frowning. He wasn't. She took heart. "I've never even been married."
"I see."
She shook her head. "No, you don't see," she whispered. "You think I'm experienced, but the truth is just the opposite."
He still didn't react. She didn't know what to make of that. Perhaps he didn't understand. "Royce, this is going to upset you, and I'm sorry for that, but I'm really still…"
She couldn't get the word out. He took mercy on her. "You're still a virgin?"
"Yes."
"And you believed I would be upset by this news?"
"You needn't smile at me, Royce. I had to tell you before I seduced you. You were bound…" She stopped in mid-sentence to frown up at him. "You would have noticed, wouldn't you?"
"Yes, I would have noticed."
"There, do you see?" she asked. She leaned farther back and would have kept right on going if Royce hadn't tightened his hold around her waist.
"Tomorrow you won't remember any of this discussion. You can't know little Ulric belongs to my brother. It wouldn't be safe for the baby, especially when you find out Thurston's still alive."
She started getting misty-eyed again. Royce pulled her close. "Nicholaa, I know you're having a little trouble concentrating now, but I want you to try to understand what I'm going to say to you."
"All right."
"You're afraid of me, aren't you?"
"Perhaps just a little."
"I don't want you to be even a little afraid," he whispered. He squeezed her to emphasize that statement, then continued. "Do you know, you have a much stronger temper than I do."
She thought about that remark for a long minute, then nodded. "Thank you, husband."