Why did he have to be so close? If he was trying to seduce her again, he had to realize it was hopeless. This time, she was ready for him—and his eyes and his voice.
“You must feel very secure here, to leave such fine pieces of silver in an unlocked room,” she noted, determined to prove she wasn’t rendered incapable of conversation in his virile presence.
“I have no fear of thieves. They know that my retribution will be swift, and severe.”
“I saw your archer in the stocks in the village.”
“Exactly so,” he replied before he took a sip of wine.
“I didn’t think Norman knights set such store on dogs.”
“The lad did, and I won’t have a soldier in my employ who would brutalize a creature so much weaker than himself.”
She raised a brow as she folded her hands in her lap. “Interesting sentiment, coming from a mercenary.”
“I fought men as well trained as I, not foot soldiers.”
“And for that, you were duly paid.”
“Yes, I was.” He raised the goblet. “This was one such payment, and the three that went with it, as well as the carafe. I’m not ashamed of how I earned my living, my lady. I had littleenough choice. It was fighting, or the church, and I would not have made a good priest.”
No, he would not. The vow of chastity alone…
She forced herself to concentrate on other matters. “You said there were four goblets. What happened to the others?”
“They paid for my chapel.”
His brow furrowed when he saw her expression. “It shocks you that I wish to show my gratitude to God by having a beautiful chapel? As it happens, Iamgrateful, both for my life and the rewards I’ve earned. Yet I’m not an expert at the running of a household.” He set down the goblet and crossed his arms. “Which brings us to that girl your uncle spoke of.”
“Polly, my lord,” she replied. “And she’s not a girl, she’s a young woman.”
He inclined his head in acknowledgment of her correction. “Which one of my maidservants is she?”
“You don’t know who I mean?” she asked skeptically. The friendly, flirtatious Polly was hard to overlook.
He frowned. “Is it a sin that I don’t know the names of all my servants?”
“I’m surprised that you don’t knowhername, my lord. She’s the sort of vivacious, pretty young woman men remember.”
His expression grew disdainful. “If you think I ought to know her because I’ve bedded her, you’re wrong. I don’t dally with my servants.”
“Then you would be a rare Norman lord in that respect.”
“By that form of measure, Iama rare Norman lord.”
The firmness of his answer, and the look on his face, gave credence to his words. Yet he was so handsome and well formed, she wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he could have scores of women wherever he went—although, she had to admit, she’d heard no such tales.
“I don’t dally withanyonein my household.”
She glanced at him sharply.
“Usually,” he added, his gaze seeming to grow more intense and inscrutable.
She couldn’t prevent the blush that heated her face. But she wasn’t going to act the shy maiden and be silent.
She got to her feet, so that she was face-to-face with him. “But not always. Not when you feel you can do so with impunity, I suppose.”
“Not when the lady is willing,” he replied. “Not when I’m willing, too. But when the lady later clearly wishes nothing more to happen between us, I respect her decision.”
