“I described your traveling party to the king and his advisors when I arrived here.” He looked thoughtfully at the hooded bird nearest to him. “They would prevent you from fleeing ere we can be wed.”

She let out a huff of air which, in better times, would have been a laugh. It startled him. “Why should I flee?”

“You would not?”

She could only shake her head weakly. To defy any king would be foolish, but to defy this one could be naught but madness. All her life she had lived among men, had learned how to divine at a glance the quality of their strength. Never before had she met a man such as King Edward. She had thought no man could overset her more than Ranulf of Morency had, with his murderous reputation, his famed skill with a weapon, and worst of all his look that cut through her and saw her most carnal thoughts.

But if there was a keen edge of excitement in the fear Morency inspired, there was only a killing calm in the terror that had gripped her when the king had looked at her. The quality of King Edward’s strength was clear to her. It was unthinkable to disobey, and yet...

“You did,” she said, comprehending all at once the risk he had taken.

He looked at her sharply. “Nay. I wandered into your woods when I strayed from the road I traveled in answer to my king’s summons.” He spoke slowly, deliberately. “Never was it my intention to flee.”

This is how it would be. He would keep her secrets, and she would keep his. It would bind them better than any church vows. Almost, it made her laugh. “Such a marriage we two shall make, from these lies.”

She let her eyes fall from his, examining the finely spun wool of his tunic, the heavy gold belt slung low on his waist, the soft leather that covered his feet. Such finery he dressed in, and all of it amplifying his comeliness in a way she could not ignore. With hair black as night and eyes made yet more blue by the tunic he wore, it almost embarrassed her to look at him. He was too handsome. What a sad figure she must cut, next to him. All the riches of Ruardean could never make her a beauty.

“We are commanded to look over the marriage contract to find any alterations demanded by the passing of these many years. Your dowry, if the properties have changed – the lawyers will know it and begin at once. Edward forbids new negotiations over the particulars. He would have us wed before a fortnight is passed.”

Such haste. “But my mother, and my family –”