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“In my bed? So what?”

“So what?” He couldn’t believe she’d said that.

“What happens in bed is not what’s important.”

Apparently Richard hadn’t been humming loud enough, for he stopped so abruptly it proved he had heard her. Wharton stood frozen. Hugh stared at his wife’s tearstained face, and in the silence the men fumbled to comprehend this evidence of female simple-mindedness.

Faced with three incredulous men, she said, “Well, it isn’t. It’s the affection and trust between a man and a woman that’s important. You weren’t happy when you left the bed the last time we shared it.”

“I’m covering my ears,” Richard called, and he wrapped one pillow over his head in a slow motion that coddled his broken ribs.

All Hugh remembered about sharing her bed was the driving need to master her, the satisfaction when he did so, and the smug knowledge that she’d mastered him as well.

She must have read his face, for she said, “You weren’t. You were angry because of that shift you wanted me to return to Richard.”

Richard lifted the pillow a little. “That’s a lie! I never gave her a shift.”

Having Richard listen to a private discussion between him and his wife was like the scratch of a wolf’s claws on granite, and Hugh snapped, “You should cover your ears better.”

With elaborate circumspection, Richard rolled so they could see nothing of him but a mound of rugs.

“One of your men did.” Edlyn spoke to the mound, and the mound groaned. “And Hugh wanted me to send it back.” Now her gaze dropped to the floor, and she looked as shy as a maid. “I tried to catch you the morning you left to give it to you.”

Right then, Hugh truly knew he didn’t understand women. “To give it to me?”

“Aye. As a token from me to carry into battle.”

He remembered the sight of her, silhouetted against the morning sky, waving at him. “Was that the white flag you used?”

“White flag?”

“To signal your surrender.”

“I didn’t surrender!”

“I saw the white flag.”

She thrust her chin forward in exasperation and pushed a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. “I will never understand men. I just told you—”

“What were you going to tell me?”

“What?”

“What were you going to tell me when you came running with that shift?”

Her expression of embarrassment entertained him.

“Heh, heh.” Wharton gave a most dreadful cackle. “She’s starting t’ comprehend she can’t fool ye, huh, master?”

Hugh never took his eyes off Edlyn as he spoke. “Wharton, shut your maw and get out.”

“Aye, master.” Wharton inched toward the door sideways, like a crab easing its way toward the sea.

Richard had crept around in the bed so that he could stick his head out of the covers and listen.

Hugh wanted to throw them both out, but Edlyn was as nervous as a half-tamed falcon and just as flighty. He dared not take his concentration off her.

She moved her lips in a parody of speaking and finally squeaked, “I was just going to say that you should stay alive.”