He'd sounded so reasonable when he confessed that plan to her. He grinned, too.
'Nothing will be gained by breaking his legs.'
'I'll gain immense satisfaction,' he countered.
She shook her head.
He scowled. Then he gave up. The woman had her mind set on getting her way. He wouldn't disappoint her. He glanced at the fire, then back to Nicholaa. 'Sweetheart, which piece was it?'
'The black queen.'
His shoulders slumped. That was the piece her father had made a nick in while laughing over one of his stories.
Royce felt responsible for the disaster. He should have been watching Morgan's every move. He could have prevented the destruction if he'd been paying more attention.
He roughly pulled Nicholaa into his arms. 'I'm sorry,' he whispered. 'It's my fault. I should have-'
She didn't let him finish. 'It happened too quickly for you to prevent it.' She patted his chest and kissed his chin. 'Don't frown so. It's over and done.'
He couldn't believe she was soothing him. 'You're taking this loss remarkably well,' he told her.
Nicholaa kept right on smiling. It took her a good five minutes to get him to leave the hall. She stood in the open doorway until Royce and Lawrence had crossed the courtyard.
'Is Nicholaa still standing there?' Royce asked Lawrence.
The vassal turned around to look. 'No, Baron.
She's gone.'
Royce immediately changed directions. 'I've a suspicious nature,' he told his vassal. 'My wife took Morgan's treachery rather well, wouldn't you say?'
'Yes, she did.'
Royce smiled. 'A little too well, I think. He rounded the corner and went to the ladder leading to the walkway near the top of the wall. Then he leaned against the slats and waited.
He didn't have to stand there very long. Nicholaa came flying around the corner, her skirts raised above her ankles to quicken her speed. She came to an abrupt stop when she spotted her husband lounging against the ladder.
Nicholaa hid her hands behind her back and smiled sweetly at her husband. He smiled back. He didn't take his gaze off his wife when he ordered Lawrence to return to his duties, and as soon as the vassal had walked away, he motioned Nicholaa closer with the crook of his finger.
Royce waited until she was standing directly in front of him. Then he put his hand out.
She lost her smile and backed up a step.
'Fair's fair, Nicholaa,' he announced. 'If I can't hurt him, neither can you. Give it to me.'
She looked thoroughly disgruntled. 'How did you know?'
He touched the mark on his forehead. 'I used logic.'
She put the leather sling in his outstretched hand. She dropped the two stones on the ground.
'You thought you might miss with the first stone?' he asked.
She shook her head. 'I never miss. The other was for Henry.'
He started laughing. She didn't know what to make of that. She took another step back.
'I've taken you away from your duties long enough,' she announced. Her disappointment over not being able to give Morgan and Henry a proper send-off still chafed. She wanted to shout at her husband because he wouldn't let her have her way. She stared at the sling dangling from his fingers, took a deep breath, and then said, 'I shall try to keep my temper under control.'
'Does that mean you'll smile even more often?'
'Yes.'
'God help me.'
Her gaze flew to his. 'He already helped me,' she whispered. 'He gave me you.'
She always took him by surprise when she said such incredibly wonderful things to him. He pulled away from the ladder, took hold of his wife's hand, and started walking toward the castle.
They walked side by side without saying a word to each other. She thought he was taking her back to the great hall so he could sit her down and lecture her.
Yet when they reached the table and the chairs, he didn't let go of her hand. He just continued tugging her along toward the screens that hid their bed.
He stopped to look out the hole he'd made with Morgan's body, then turned to wink at Nicholaa. 'Nice view, isn't it?'
'Royce, where are you taking me?'
'To bed.'
'Now?'
'Now.'
'Royce, this isn't like you,' she blurted out. 'You never stray from your plans for the day. It's… disorganized.'
She'd sounded appalled. He pulled her into his arms. 'Spontaneous actions are just as important as planned ones, wife. You really should leave a little room in your life for surprises.'
'I must learn-'
He wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her off the floor. His mouth came down on hers just as she was putting her arms around his neck.
Ingelram, Justin, and their commander, Lawrence, were passing the hole in the front wall. They were all given quite a surprise at seeing their baron kissing his wife.
Lawrence smiled. Ingelram nudged Justin in his ribs and let out a hoot of laughter. Justin took the longest to react. He turned to his commander, caught his grin, and then said, 'My sister must love her husband.'
Lawrence nodded. 'Her husband loves her just as much.'
Justin smiled. He wasn't going to worry about his sister any longer. She'd found her place in this new Norman world, just as he had.
Ingelram nudged him again. Justin immediately turned his attention to tripping his friend.
Lawrence grabbed both soldiers by the nape of the neck and shoved them forward. His baron obviously wanted privacy, and Lawrence was going to see that he got it.
Royce gathered the soldiers together and told them about the message from King William. Although every man present wanted to be one of the twenty chosen for the battle games, none dared ask for the honor. They knew they would have to wait until he was ready to tell them.
The next evening during dinner Nicholaa noticed several cuts on her husband's hands. She asked him about the nicks, but he only shrugged and changed the subject. She thought he didn't remember how he'd come by the cuts.
Royce looked exhausted. He was too tired to play chess after the table was cleared. He wasn't too tired to make love to her, though.
She awakened in the middle of the night. She moved toward Royce and nearly slid off his side of the bed before she realized he wasn't there.
She put on her robe and went to find her husband. She didn't have to go far. Royce was sitting at the head of the table concentrating so hard on what he was doing that he didn't notice her.
Royce had a small block of wood in his hands. In the flickering candlelight she could see the white queen on the table in front of him. Royce held the block of wood near the bottom in his left hand. He held a small knife in his other hand and was hard at work carving away slivers from the top. He would occasionally look up at the queen, then turn back to the block of wood.
He was making another black queen for her.
She understood then where all the cuts had come from. She understood why her husband looked so exhausted, too. But most of all, she understood something else: Royce loved her.
Nicholaa didn't move for a long while. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she watched her husband. She smiled each time he muttered an expletive, for she knew he'd nicked his hand again.
She heard the door open and immediately moved back behind the screen. She peeked around the corner and
