It was Richard and Emma's and they had insisted on giving it up to herself and Guyon during their stay. A kindness that was a cruelty in disguise. Last night Guyon had sat up until the early hours talking to Richard and used the excuse of not disturbing Judith and the other sleepers across whose pallets he must step in order to reach his own bed as a reason to roll himself in his cloak among the other men in the hall .

Judith leaned her head against the wall and folded her arms, her eyes troubled. Ever since that incident in the bedchamber at Ravenstow, when his body had reacted to her touch and she had run from him in terror, he had taken pains to avoid the physical contacts of their relationship.

The morning after Earl Hugh's arrival, he had ridden out with him to inspect the proposed site of the new keep. Judith, her mind and emotions in turmoil, had not been so foolish as to try and stop him. Indeed, when he told her of his intentions, after one brief, involuntary denial she had listened quietly to his reasoning and to Earl Hugh's jovial bluster and agreed with them that they must go; she had even found a smile from somewhere and the will to be interested in what they intended.

In the morning she had served them both the stirrup cup and wished them good fortune with a smile on her lips, and when Guyon had leaned over Arian's neck to tug her braid she had suffered it with humour and forced a smile. It was only for a week at most that they would be gone, only a week she told herself, but it might as well have been a lifetime. She had sobbed furiously into her pillow. The mastery was no longer hers.

She had lost it the moment she ran from him in panic, her hands slick with aromatic oil and the feel of his skin still imprinted on hers.

In the event, it had been a full ten days before he returned, looking positively refreshed by his freedom. His skin had worn an outdoor glow and his manner had been ebullient as he discussed the plans for the intended new keep. It was literally a stone's throw from the Welsh border.

There were merlins nesting on the lichened rock face and wolf pugs in the mud of the river crossing at its sheer, boulder-tumbled face. To the west, the hill s of Gwynedd were a purple dragon-back in the distance. To the east lay the fertile Chester plain.

A price had yet to be haggled and the costings worked out, but both men professed themselves content that the project should commence by the early spring. So much Judith had heard from Guyon, his manner enthusiastic, nothing concealed. In a roundabout way, as it went from guardroom to hall servants to her personal maids, she also heard that Earl Hugh not only kept an excellent table at his hunting lodge, but also provided a comprehensive list of other creature comforts for the benefit of his guests. Apparently the girl had been well endowed and willing and Guyon's enthusiasm as boundless as that which he displayed when discussing the proposed new keep.

At first Judith had been hurt and jealous, but these emotions had been replaced by irritation with herself and a certain wry acceptance. At least he had not sought his relief with Rhosyn.

She did not think she could have borne that. And, the remedy she knew lay in her own hands could she but bear to reach out and grasp it, thorns and all . He still called her Cath fach and pulled her braid, but he was more wary of touching her now.

Fewer hugs and kisses. Sometimes he would look at her in a way that made her insides melt with fear and on those occasions his eyes were not on her face.

He lingered more with his men. Some nights he did not come to bed at all . He spent much of his time away, some of it genuine, concerned with the new keep and maintenance of those he already held, some of it an excuse to avoid her.

The easy camaraderie of the early days was gone. The thread that bound them was taut, vibrating with tension and stretching a little further each day. And if it snapped ...

Stifled by her thoughts, Judith opened the casement and looked out. The apple blossom, prematurely detached by a frisky breeze, drifted in pink-tinted snow across her vision. The sound of laughter silvered her ears and she saw that a boat was being manoeuvred into the steps at the foot of the garden, a private riverboat with protective bright canopy and furs piled within against the nip of the spring breeze.

The source of the laughter was an exceptionally pretty young woman wearing a cloak lined with vair. She sat on the nearside of the canopy and was leaning intimately into Guyon's shoulder. Her braids, exposed beneath her veil, were the colour of new butter against his dark cloak. He was laughing too and the woman leaned further to kiss him playfully on the lips as he rose to leave the boat. Richard, his brother-in-law, followed him, chuckling a remark and receiving a jesting slap from the woman in punishment. The last to leave was a slender young man who bent with polished courtesy to kiss the beringed white hand offered to him.

'That's Prince Henry's private craft,' Christen said, nudging her way in to lean beside Judith and watch the boat steer out into the swift, grey current of the river. 'He still sees Alais on occasion.'

'That is Alais de Clare?' Judith narrowed her eyes, but the blonde figure was too far away now to be freshly appraised.

'There's no cause for concern,' Christen said blithely. 'She flirts from habit and Guy was never really that interested.'

'I'm not concerned,' Judith said with far more nonchalance than she actually felt. 'Who else was there with Guyon and Richard?'

Christen turned pink and smoothed her already immaculate gown. 'That was Simon de Vere, one of Papa's assistants. He's heir to an estate just outside the city, but Papa thinks he will rise to much higher things in the King's service.'

So much higher that Richard was hoping for a match between Simon and his eldest daughter.

Christen was amenable to the idea, for Simon was nineteen years old, likely to be rich and already an accomplished courtier.

The women heard masculine voices raised in jovial conversation and Christen hastened to open the door, almost tripping over Cadi who was determined to be first.

Richard strode into the room laughing and wiping his eyes at some joke and tossed his cloak casually on to a chest, Emma being absent among the stall s of Cheapside with her maid and not there to take him to task.

The popinjay screeched at the men and bobbed on its perch. 'You ought to get one, Guy, they're good company when your wife's not around.' Richard grinned, as Guyon paused beside the perch to eye the bird dubiously. 'Mind you, so is Alais de Clare, eh?'

'Not much to choose between the two,' Guyon answered neutrally as he walked around the bird.

'But I rather fancy that Alais bears more resemblance to a coney than a popinjay.'

Richard snorted and turned to take the wine that his daughter brought for him.

Guyon looked round at Judith, who still stood at the open window, her expression censorious. 'Where's your cloak, Cath fach?'

' Cath fach?' Richard looked round, still laughing. Familiar with Latin, French and Flemish and even a smattering of English, he was totally nonplussed by the Welsh that his wife's marcher relatives used so freely.

'Kitten,' Guyon translated in the same, neutral tone. 'She might look sweet, but don't try picking her up unless you want to be scratched.'

'A coney, a popinjay or a kitten,' Richard mused. 'Which would you rather?'

'A kitten any day,' Guyon smiled across at his wife. 'They know how to fend for themselves.'

She looked at him and then away, crossly aware that she was blushing. 'Why do I need my cloak?'

'Simon's grandfather has a house this end of the Holborn road and he's renting breathing space if we want it.'

Judith glanced around the room. Christen and Simon had drawn aside and were talking in stilted formal fashion, painfully aware of Richard's approving but amused paternal scrutiny. Tonight there would be straw pallets laid out over every portion of floor space and not even the privacy to piss in the chamber-pot without alerting half the household to the event. Besides, the crowded proximity in which they were forced to dwell was straining the lukewarm tolerance between herself and Emma to the limit. She nodded to Guyon and went to pick up her cloak from the foot of the bed.

'Get your cloak, Christen,' Guyon said across the room to his niece. 'You might as well come too. Simon's grandfather won't object. He enjoys company.'

'He'd be delighted,' Simon confirmed, his face alight with that particular emotion before he turned a pensive look in Richard's direction. 'With your permission, sire?'

'Dare I trust you for a chaperon, Guy?' Richard enquired, lifting a sardonic brow. 'Emma will have me chopped into gobbets and fed to that damned bird if anything untoward happens.'

'Papa!' cried Christen indignantly, as if his concern had not, at one time, been warranted.

'I will have every respect for Christen, sir,' said Simon with earnest, stilted courtesy.

Guyon considered the bright ludicrous bird upon its perch. 'Does it eat meat, anyway?' he asked.

Christen hit him.

Simon's grandfather was a garrulous old man, in his seventieth year but still hale and hearty, delighted to greet company. He teased Simon unmercifully about Christen, pumped him and Guyon for court scandal, sucking his gums with relish over the juicier bits and making acid remarks about the brains and breeding of the people involved. He gave them wine and honey cakes. The tables board came out and a set of dice and counters. He invited Christen to play and swivelled a jaundiced eye towards Guyon.