‘Give them my good wishes,’ John said. ‘I’ll call up and see them tomorrow.’

‘We could go up to the house for supper,’ she suggested. ‘They would be glad to see you tonight.’

‘I have other plans for tonight,’ John said with a meaning smile. Elizabeth felt herself warm through with the intensity of her blush. ‘Oh.’ She recovered herself. ‘I’ll get the beefstock then.’

John nodded and listened to her quick step down the brick path and out into the main street. He stacked the fireplace with a liberal supply of logs and then went out through the back yard to the little field to see to his horse. When he came back Elizabeth was stirring a pot hung on a chain from the spit, and there was bread and new cheese on the table and two jugs of small ale.

‘I brought my book,’ she said carefully. ‘I thought you might like us to look at it, together.’

‘What book?’

‘My lesson book,’ she said. ‘My father taught me to read and write and I did my writing in this book. It has clean pages in it still. I thought, if you wished, I might teach you.’

For a moment John was going to rebuff her; the idea of a wife teaching her husband anything was contrary to the laws of nature and of God; but she looked very sweet and very young. Her hair was tumbled and her cap was slightly askew. Lying on his cape on the floor of the little cottage she had been tender and ready to be pleased, and at the end, openly passionate. He found he did not feel much like supporting the laws of God and nature; instead he found that he was rather disposed to oblige her. Besides, it would be good to know how to read and write.

‘D’you know how to write in French?’ he asked. ‘And Latin words?’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Do you want to learn French?’

‘I can speak French, and a bit of Italian, and enough German to see that my lord is not cheated when I am buying plants for him from a sea captain. And I know some plant names in Latin. But I never learned to write any of it down.’

Her face was illuminated with her smile. ‘I can teach you.’

‘All right,’ he said. ‘But you must tell no-one.’

Her gaze was open and honest. ‘Of course not. It shall be between the two of us, as everything else will be.’