“We begin before dawn,” he said.
Amelia groaned. “Of course we do.”
“You object?”
“No. I just miss coffee with a passion that may actually be sinful.”
Walter frowned. “Coffee?”
“A medicinal herb,” Amelia said quickly.
Thomas looked at her. She looked back at him, all innocence. He did not believe her for a moment.
Later, when Walter had gone to find the reeve and Edith had carried the empty bread basket back to the kitchen, Thomas found Amelia still by the table, flexing her fingers as if they ached.
“You should rest,” he said.
“So should you.”
“I am accustomed to little sleep.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
He had no answer for that.
The candlelight caught in her hair beneath the veil, making the loose curls glow dark red and copper. Her face was tired, but there was life in it. Purpose. The brittle look she’d worn since asking him the year had eased for the first time.
Ashcombe had done that or mayhap being useful had. He understood the danger of that better than most. Need could become a chain before a man noticed the first link closing.
“Why are you helping?” he asked.
She looked down at her hands. “Because I’m here and I can.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have tonight.”
He knew a door closing when he heard one. For once, he did not kick at it.
“Ashcombe will take what help you give,” he said. “So will I.”
Her eyes lifted to his.
The words had cost him more than he liked. Worse, she seemed to know it.
“I’ll do my best,” she said.
Thomas nodded.
There were a dozen things he might have said then. That her best had already done more than his fury. That he had not feltthe ground steady beneath him since Evesham. That when she bent over the accounts with ink on her cheek and that glorious hair escaping her veil, he had thought, with a force that nearly unmanned him,mine.
Instead he said, “Be in the yard before dawn.”
She stared at him. Then she laughed. “You really are terrible at sweet words of wooing.”
His heart gave one hard, foolish kick “Wooing?”
Her eyes widened. “I didn’t mean wooing. I meant regular words. Normal words. Words that don’t make people want to throw a shoe at you.”
