“I love you, I love you, I love you. I love you more than chocolate. I love you more than the whole world is big.” She paused, thinking, searching for a way to explain what she felt. “I love you more than artifacts. I love you so much it makes my toes curl just thinking about it.”

Pushing her hair back from her face, she donned her most sincere expression. “I love you.”

“You can have the confounded shield if you love it that much, lass,” Dageus said, sounding utterly bewildered.

Chloe felt all the blood drain from her face.

She swallowed hard. Several times. Oh, God, she thought dismally, was it humanly possible to feel any more stupid?

She shifted awkwardly on the chair, cleared her throat and stared down at the floor, thinking frantically, trying to come up with some excuse for what she’d just been doing. Back rigidly to him, she began to babble. “It’s . . . er, not the shield, um, you know. I wasn’t really talking to the shield, I just couldn’t find a mirror and this is just a little positive reinforcement thingie I do sometimes. I read it in a book somewhere that it boosted self-confidence and . . . er, engendered a general sense of well-being, and it really does work, you should try it sometime,” she said brightly.

She realized she was talking with her hands, gesturing a bit wildly, so she clasped them firmly behind her back.

He remained silent behind her, stressing her out completely, and she began babbling again. “What I’m saying is that I really don’t want the shield. I mean, I think you’ve given me more than enough artifacts already, and I couldn’t ask for anything else, so if you’ll just go away now I’ll resume my exercises. It’s important that one does them alone.”

More silence.

What on earth was he thinking? Was he going to burst into laughter? Was he smiling? She peered in the shield, but since she was up on the chair, he was several feet lower than she was and she couldn’t see him.

“Dageus?” she said warily, refusing to turn. If she looked at him now, she might start crying. She’d so wanted the moment tonight to be tender and romantic, and damn it all, now if she said it to him tonight, he’d know she’d been practicing and he’d think she was a total dweeb!

“Aye, lass?” he said finally, slowly.

“Why aren’t you going away?” she asked tightly.

A long pause, then a cautious, “If you doona mind, lass, I’d like to watch.”

She closed her eyes. Was he making fun of her? “Absolutely not.”