“You are better off not knowing.”
Alys hummed noncommittally. He would tell her eventually. “Does solving this dangerous riddle require facial hair?”
He looked askance at her. “No.”
“Then continue to shave. You’re too handsome by far to cover your face in prickly bristles. I rather enjoy looking at you, Piers.”
He stilled and looked into her eyes. “‘Tis a bold and dangerous game you play at yourself, young Alys.”
“Bold, yes. Dangerous?” She shrugged. “Mayhap. But ‘tis no game. I am most sincere.”
“I am a grown man. You are—”
“A grown woman,” she interrupted.
“Ayoungwoman, with no experience outside of her sheltered and pampering home,” he continued.
“Does my youth make me undesirable?” she challenged. “Or my wealth? Most men are attracted to me for both.”
He frowned and turned his gaze quickly back to the fire. His poking stick had become engulfed in flame andhe whisked it sharply through the air with a surprised curse that made Alys smile.
“If you had so many suitors, why is it that you are now being forced to marry the likes of Clement Cobb?” he goaded, avoiding the subject she’d raised.
“That is a fair question, I suppose. I didn’t even like—much less love—any of the men who offered for me,” she said honestly. “I certainly am not in love with Clement Cobb. Sybilla is only impatient to be rid of me.”
“Why?” He turned his face back to her.
Alys frowned. “I suppose because she doesn’t like me very much. Sybilla and I—we are very different from each other.”
“That is no reason for her to be desperate to be rid of you,” Piers argued. “It’s not as if you are an infant that demands her constant care, or Fallstowe Castle some lowly hut where the two of you are forced to sit in each other’s laps.”
“True. If I’m very, very lucky, days pass when Sybilla and I don’t catch sight of each other.”
“Then there must be some other reason,” Piers insisted. “You have another sister, also older than you?”
“Cecily claims that she will take vows. She has no desire to marry.”
“Then why do you not do the same?”
Alys laughed. “Think you a convent would have me? Any matter, it’s not as though I don’t want a husband and children. And I have a husband now, so we must work straight away on a family.”
Piers gave her a warning frown. “Alys.”
She smiled in reply. “You never answered me: do you find me unattractive, Piers?”
“I’m not having this conversation.”
“Why? Are you worried that I might assault your person in a fit of passion?”
“Yes.”
Alys dropped her flushed face to her bag for a moment and laughed, and to her surprise, Piers chuckled. She raised her head, still smiling, and her desire was out of her mouth before she had time to consider the repercussions of it. “Will you kiss me, Piers?”
He stared at her, the smile falling away from his mouth slowly, his eyes drawn to her lips. She licked them, encouraging him without words.
“I shouldn’t,” he said quietly.
“But will you?” She sat up again, leaning toward him, her eyes searching his face. “I want you to, very much.”
