Kate glanced up at Richard and was taken aback by the intensity of his expression. Humbled, she lowered her eyes and carefully wrapped her harp in its velvet covering. Richard said softly, “Mistress, you have a rare gift. My compliments.” How he managed to keep from reaching out and touching her he did not know. Every fiber in his body yearned to know this woman. This felt different from his childish infatuation for the untouchable Isabel. Could this be real love?

An explosive snap from the dying fire startled everyone, and heaving himself to his feet, Jack pronounced it time to retire for the night. “Come, Margaret, we should leave our guest his room. God give you a good night, Kate.”

Clutching her harp, Kate dropped a curtsey not daring to look directly at Richard again. After the women had gone, Jack turned to Richard to bid him goodnight. “I believe my cursed leg is healed enough to hunt on the morrow. If it dawns fine, we should go.”

“Tell me of your injury, Sir John. ’Twas a boar charge, was it not?”

“I pray you call me Jack while we are privately at Tendring. And aye, it was a boar. A noble beast, in truth, which, in the agony of dying, will make one last charge at its adversary.” He chuckled. “Alas, that was me.”

It cannot be said that Jack Howard’s praise of the fearsome wild boar that night inspired Richard to choose the animal for his badge, for he had been pondering a choice ever since Edward had given him leave to order new livery for the small household he was setting up for himself, but he now decided the beast would serve him admirably. One of York’s enemies, John de Vere, earl of Oxford, had used the Blue Boar as his cognizance until his execution at Edward’s hands, thus Richard came to choose the white, Blanc Sanglier, which was to be associated with Richard throughout his life.

Not a half hour later wild boars and badges fled his mind as soon as he blew out the candle hanging on the bedpost. His thoughts were all of Kate and how much time he could snatch with her the next day. For once, his desire to hunt was doused by a fount of passion for the enchanting young woman sleeping not thirty paces away.

The very next day, Richard lost his virginity. As he lay back on the bed in Kate’s small chamber, he marveled how easy and how natural it had been. No wonder Edward was so addicted, he shamefacedly admitted.