‘You know of the barn restoration with Mitchell.’
‘Yes...’ Hugh turned his face away.
Silence as they took slower steps, falling further behind the crowd, the children and their poles. Away from the revelry and happiness.
What did she have at this moment? Questions...a tentative trust between her and Hugh. Threats against her family. And yet she wouldn’t choose to be anywhere else.
Because of her vow or her childhood infatuation? No. BecausethisHugh—the one with his silence and suspicions and cynicism—she wanted to know more of.
‘I know you say it isn’t wise, but—’
He looked at her then. ‘Do you know why?’
Blue eyes, their storm never ceasing. She’d thought she knew the Hugh from her past, and though she’d seen glimpses of him, she knew he had changed. But the years apart had changed her as well. She would withstand the King threatening her family. She wouldn’t run away again.
‘Would you have me share my life and give me nothing in return?’
‘It’s safer that way.’
‘I have my monarch after me—I’m far from safe.’
Hugh tilted his head, as if contemplating her words. ‘I went to Edward’s Court to train as a knight. It wasn’t until many years later, and quite recently, that he asked me to find information for him.’
‘Why?’
‘It’s trying times for him. There is much deceit and many secrets. I’m constantly needed.’
‘It’s dangerous.’
‘Almost always.’ Hugh shrugged. ‘He doesn’t ask every knight under him to do such tasks. Most knights come from royal lineage and have families to return to, or families of their own making. I have none of those. Therefore, I can travel to where he requires me to be.’
To most, it would be exciting. To her, it sounded lonely.
‘Can you ever decline the tasks?’
He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. ‘You have met him—can you imagine such a scenario?’
She shook her head. At first she’d been overawed at the power emanating from Edward, but then there had been that moment with the horn. When he had reflected on the importance of kings versus lovers.
‘When he asked me he didn’t need to threaten my family. I... I wanted to help him.’
‘He’s the King—he has his flaws, but he is a good man.’
Kings, spies, traitors...and walking with Hugh in Swaffham during Wren Day. Far different from the way she had expected this time of year to be. Far more than she’d hoped for.
‘It’s never been this way before.’
Hugh could feel Alice glancing his way as they walked. Luckily it was easy to avoid her questioning gaze as he manoeuvred them around the town, kept them far enough away from the others, but not too far that they would look suspicious or cause Alice’s reputation to suffer.
‘What hasn’t?’ he said.
‘You and I. We’ve never talked like this.’
Because he had avoided her since the time he’d seen her with those puppies. When he hadn’t been able to avoid her she’d been breaking his nose or asking for a kiss.
That kiss.
Clumsy with desire for her—that was all that had stopped him in Lyman’s house. His arms had been full of her, of her responses to his touch, to his lips. He’d been blind to the room, to the danger, to everything except her. He wanted to sweep everything off that desk, and take her as he’d dreamed a thousand times before.
