"Oh yes, a tippler is Bernard, tried to cheat me once about ten years ago. I kicked him but good in his ribs, his wife holding him down for me, all the while cursing him from Cornwall to Scotland. Marie's a good woman. Why do you ask?"

"His wife, Marie, was murdered-hanged-and Bernard is missing. Before he disappeared, he told me the Grakers did it."

"Marie is dead? Murdered? Oh no." He sighed deeply and everyone in the room knew he was much affected. "How we enjoyed each other whenever I managed to sneak into the inn, usually right under Bernard's nose. Now, what is this about Grakers? Cornish pixies? Why, those little mites wouldn't harm a soul. Whenever I am in England I swear I can hear them singing in the yew bushes. Bernard is lying. He killed her, the bastard."

Lord Kipper had slept with Mr. Leach's wife? "Evidently Grakers can be vicious," Meggie said, knowing in that moment that she'd been thrown into Bedlam.

Niles shrugged. "That's a tale. You say that Bernard disappeared? Come now, Thomas, where could he possibly disappear to?"

"I don't know. I didn't join the search for him because

I needed to come home to Pendragon. Stay away from my wife, Niles, or I will break your leg, not your lame one, your very fit one."

Niles, Lord Kipper, sighed, and toasted Meggie with his teacup when she handed it to him and said, "I shall miss Marie. Lovely woman, although her tongue had grown sharper over the years. I hope they catch old Bernard and stretch his neck."

Alvy Shanahan, Meggie's fifteen-year-old maid, was small, pert, her hair was as black as Thomas's, and she had the most beautiful lilting accent Meggie had ever heard.

And she heard a lot of that lilt because Alvy didn't stop talking, not for a single moment, from handing Meggie her chemise to the final pat on her hair, Alvy talked. And she talked of only one person-Thomas Malcombe, how very handsome he was, and ah, so very big and manly, and all that lovely black hair, and those forearms of his, thick with muscle and brown from the sun with black hair on them, and don't forget those lovely dark eyes of his, that ye could just fall into.

Oh dear, Meggie thought, she didn't want her maid to be in love with her husband.

Just after nine o'clock that evening, Thomas led her into the White Room, dismissed Alvy, ignoring her look of abject adoration, and said, "I have decided to sleep with you, Meggie."

"Good. Then I can begin improvements on you immediately."

He laughed even as he unfastened the long march of buttons down her back. "Cook-Mrs. Mullins-came here to Pendragon with my mother. That's why you had English fare."

Another area needing improvement. "You liked the beef, Thomas?"

"Oh no, but no matter. She has been with us as long as I've been on the earth. When I am really hungry, I ride into Kinsale to visit a friend and beg my dinner. However, you will have a pleasant surprise at breakfast."

"Perhaps I can give her some new recipes that will improve upon the meals."

"Just go easy, that's all I ask, Meggie." He pulled her sleeves down to her elbows, trapping her arms to her sides. Slowly he turned her to face him. "I like the dark blue against all this white. A splash of color in the snow."

She raised her face and he kissed her.

"Oh my," she said when he finally raised his head some time later. "Oh my. That is so very nice, Thomas. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps you are wicked, in the very best of ways."

He was pleased with his wickedness when he brought her to orgasm some fifteen minutes later, had her shuddering with such deep pleasure that she looked ready to expire from it. She lay panting on the beautiful white bed with its white counterpane and white sheets with him still deep inside her, and she loved the feel of him, the sound of his voice as he said love words to her and sex words, many of which she didn't understand, for after all, she was a vicar's daughter. Many of them, however, she did understand because she was, after all, also her uncles' niece.

"Thomas," she whispered against his shoulder, then lightly bit him and licked his salty flesh.

"Ah, don't," he said, but it was already too late. He groaned, harsh and low that groan that bespoke his innards were being stomped on as he spilled his seed so wonderfully deep inside her.

When he was breathing again, his eyes focused on her face, she said, "That was very nice, too, Thomas, very nice indeed."

A vast understatement. He was too far gone to talk. How could she manage to speak coherently?

After some time, Thomas managed to lean over and douse the row of candles in the filthy silver holder. When it was dark, when she was lying on her back, staring up at the white ceiling which she now couldn't see, she said,

"I like children. I remember I was so pleased when Mary Rose birthed Alec and-"

"Go to sleep, Meggie."

"The ten years-perhaps I can accomplish it in nine years."

"What ten years? Nine years? What are you talking about?"

"To make you the perfect man."

He laughed and pulled her against him. He felt her warm breath on his flesh. He was asleep long before she was. He didn't snore.

The next morning when Meggie walked down to the small family dining room that Alvy told her about, in between more choice comments about the new earl, she heard a man's voice. It wasn't Thomas.

Barnacle said from behind her, "Ye didn't walk on me back, milady, now did ye? Ye forgot."

"I'm sorry, Barnacle. After breakfast I will meet you in the kitchen. I will walk on your back in there."

He gave her a nod, a small salute, and staggered back to the front door.

She should have asked him who was in the dining room. She walked in the small dark room. What a dreadful room, what with the curtains drawn tightly over the two bay windows that gave onto something, what, she had no clue, and she found herself staring at a young man who looked a great deal like Aunt Libby.

He saw her, rose slowly from his chair, and said, "You are Thomas's new wife."

She nodded, walked to the draperies and pulled them open, fastening them with the wide golden ropes. Light flooded into the room. It made it look even worse, but at least now she could see outdoors.

She looked at the fine-looking young man. He was blond and fresh-faced, tall, not as tall as Thomas, but very nearly, and he was giving her a fat smile. "Yes, I'm Meggie Malcombe. And who are you?"

"Oh, I'm William Malcombe, Thomas's half brother."

He was, Meggie realized in that moment, as she looked across the table, Aunt Libby's son. He was the young man who had impregnated Melissa Winters and let Thomas take the blame and the responsibility.

What was going on here?

Chapter 23

MY WILLIAM ARRIVED late last night," Aunt Libby said, and patted his arm. "Sit down, my love, and let me serve you some nice bacon that's just barely been waved over a flame, just as you like it. My, look at all the light in here. I had no idea there was even any sun to be had. Does it make me look wrinkled?"

"No, Mother, you look beautiful," William said, and took his seat again beside her. "You always do."

"What a sweet boy you are, William."

"No one else ever says that to me, Mother."

Meggie certainly believed that. She saw that Madeleine was eating at a fine clip, not paying any attention, and eased herself into the empty chair next to what she assumed was Thomas's chair.

She said, "Does anyone mind that I opened the draperies?"

"You are doubtless trying to show us all that you are the important one here now," Madeleine said, her mouth full of eggs.

"No, ma'am, I'm not, truly. It's just that I would like to see who is at the breakfast table this morning and what is on my plate."