She gazed at him, noting with a skip of the heart how different he looked today. He was smartly attired in matching doublet and hose of bottle green, with brown stockings and a sleeveless leather jerkin. He’d undone the ties of his shirt and the top buttons of his doublet, a concession to the heat of the day. It puzzled her that he’d brought such a heavy hat, in preference to his straw sun hat, which would have been much cooler.
He glanced up and caught her staring. She tried to look haughty.
“Tell me why you think me an impostor, and I’ll answer you.”
Alys held up her hand to count off ideas on her fingers. “You’re very fastidious in your toilet for a gardener.” His long locks were always well-groomed. “You have opinions about things not relevant to your alleged class. You speak to me in a way that ought to earn you a flogging. What say you to that, Master Kit, if that is, indeed, your name?”
He narrowed his eyes. “I am, indeed, called Kit. I never lied about that.”
“You know how to handle both horse and hawk, you commanded a groom with no expectation of being disobeyed, and your hands are soft—too soft for one used to manual work.” She reached for his hand, turning it over to reveal the palm. There were fresh blisters there, which had not yet become the hard calluses one would expect from frequent labor. He sighed and took her fingers in his. There was a tremor in them, showing a disquiet he was keen to hide.
“Very clever, Mistress Barchard. Your observations are astute. It is a relief to me that I don’t have to be secret any longer, with you at least. But I dare not tell you my story.”
No! She wanted to know everything about him. “Why? I’ll tell no one. And if you’re leaving, it matters not who you actually are, or what your story might be.”
“It shames me.” He dropped his gaze to her fingers.
“It shames me that I allowed an undergardener to kiss me. I would rather think I’d been kissed by a gentleman.”
He laughed softly. “Of course, you would. Then be assured a man with the lineage of—but not deserving the name of—gentleman, kissed you. But he does not wish to reveal his true identity or title.”
Kit had a title? Whatever could have happened to reduce him to such circumstances?
And why was she still letting him hold her fingers?
“However, I can tell you that I am undertaking a kind of penance for a misfortune at court—”
“Court? You’ve been to court?”
“Aye, but I will only say more if you promise your lips are sealed.”
She nodded, her fingers tightening involuntarily on his.
“To make amends, the queen required me to take myself away from court and learn to do something useful for a change. Total abstinence from the company of women was to be part of the punishment.”
He’d met Queen Bess? Her confidence tumbled. Here was a man of superior standing, perhaps even more important than Sir Thomas. She hardly dared recall some of her past behavior towards him.
Her voice caught as she asked, “Why were you banished, sir?”
“Don’t call me that.” The hardness of his voice alarmed her.
He stroked her hand. “Forgive me, but no one must know. You promised, remember?”
She nodded, transfixed by the movements of his fingers. Each touch ignited a sizzling flame, sending pulses of sensation up her arm. What would it feel like if he were to kiss her again?
“If I tell you, you’ll snatch your hand away. Or laugh.”
“I shall do neither.”
He leaned closer, fixing her with his dark brown gaze. “I had one too many passionate embroilments with young women.”
She felt a blush steal over her cheeks but steadfastly refused to remove her hand from his mesmerizing caress. “So, you hope to impress the queen by learning gardening skills, sleeping in a hut, and avoiding women?”
“That’s the sum of it.”
She wasn’t convinced he was telling her everything. “Then you haven’t succeeded yet, have you? What will happen now? Will you go on to some other household next week, and try and take them all for fools?”
“Mayhap when the queen sees the blisters upon my hands and hears my knees creak in damp weather, her heart will melt a little, and my punishment will be over.”
He must be a favorite, if that was the only penance she required of him. “A lady who rules as firmly as Elizabeth has a heart well beyond danger of melting.”
“We shall see. They say fortune favors the brave, or perhaps the brash in my case. I am glad the masque is over. I have not enjoyed deceiving you.”
She steeled herself against the tenderness in his voice. She now knew Kit to be both a liar and a seasoned seducer—one needed to be careful around such men.
“Have you learned your lesson?”
“I have certainly learned to take Bess at her word.”
He looked so forlorn at this, she couldn’t help but chuckle, earning herself a reproachful glare.
“While I’m delighted to discover you do have a sense of humor, Alys Barchard, I’m not pleased to be the butt of it.”
“Wasn’t that the idea, that you should be humiliated? I’m helping with that.”
“No, the idea was that I should be humbled, not humiliated. In my book, they’re not the same thing at all. I wonder how you can be so cruel when I have looked after you so well.”
This last was true, even if he had taken advantage and kissed her. She withdrew her hand from his grasp—now that she knew who and what he was, she ought to allow him no more liberties. He’d been exiled from court for his licentiousness, and she should have nothing to do with such a man.
Yet, he was the most exciting thing that had ever happened in her secluded
