She tried various touches, strokes, and grips, wondering if she was doing this right. Her hands felt clumsy and rather too small. The occasional catches of his breath were not very informative, she thought, though once in a while his hand covered hers to squeeze some silent suggestion. Was that gasp pleasure or pain? His apparent endurance for pain was a bit frightening, when she thought about it. “Can I try your oil on my hands?”

“Certainly! Although…this may be over rather quickly if you do.”

She hesitated. “Couldn’t we…do it again? Sometime?”

“Oh yes. I’m very renewable. Just not very fast. Not”—he sighed—“as quick as when I was younger, anyway. Though that’s mostly been to my advantage, tonight.”

And mine. His patience humbled her. “Well, then…”

The oil made her hands slip and slide in ways that intrigued her and seemed to please him, too. She grew more daring. That, for example, made him jerk, no, convulse, much as he’d done to her a while ago.

“Brave Spark!” he gasped.

“Is that good?”

“Yes…”

“Figured if you thought it would please me, it might be something that pleased you, too.”

“Clever girl,” he crooned, his eyes closing again.

She chilled. “Please don’t make fun of me.”

His eyes opened, and his brows drew in; he raised his head from the pillow and frowned down over his torso at her. “Wasn’t. You have one of the hungriest minds it’s ever been my pleasure to meet. You may have been starved of information, but your wits are as sharp as a blade.”

She caught her breath, lest it escape as a sudden surprised sob. His words could not be true, but oh they sounded so nice to hear!

At her shocked look, he added a little impatiently, “Come, child, you can’t be that bright and not know it.”

“Papa said I must be a fool to ask so many questions all the time.”

“Never that.” His head tilted, and his eyes took on that uncanny inward look. “There’s a deep, dark place in your ground just there. Major fissure and blockage. I…it’s not going to be the work of an hour to find the bottom of that one, I’m afraid.”

She gulped. “Then let’s set it aside with the rest of the stones, for now. It’ll wait.” She bent her head. “I’m neglecting you.”

“I won’t argue with that…”

Tongues, she discovered, worked like fingers on fellows quite as well, if differently, as they worked on ladies. Well, then. What would happen if she did this and also this and that at the same time…