Nick winced. "It was not through cowardice, moppet. I did not wish you to feel pressured. Perhaps it was conceit on my part, but I had thought you might find it harder to refuse me than Richard."

"But you wish me to do this thing?" She looked at him directly for the first time.

Nicholas shook his head. "No, I do not. But on occasion there are greater purposes that have to be served, and one must make sacrifices. This is one of those occasions."

It is possible we may be of service to each other. Where had those words come from? They had been spoken when she had been sitting in another bed in another chamber in the company of Nicholas, Lord Kincaid. Did this go back to that time, then?

"I am only a Newgate-born, tavern-bred whore, after all," Polly heard herself say, casually taking a mouthful of

gruel. "It is hardly a great matter to sacrifice such a one to another's bed." Why must she test him? Did she want to know the answer? There was a sudden, devastating silence.

Nick was for an instant bewildered by the words. She could not possibly believe he saw the matter in that light. But once upon a time he had done so. He had seen in a hard-schooled, ambitious wench the possibility of mutual benefit. He would put the means of achieving her ambition in her hands; she would be encouraged to do no more than accept an offer that any woman in search of material benefit would seize eagerly.

But it had been a long time since he had thought in those terms. Polly was not in search of benefit of any kind. She had all she wanted now that she had proved herself capable of fulfilling the talent she had harbored with such dedication. And she loved, and was loved in return.

The thought that she might doubt him brought a surge of wrath, fueled by a guilty knowledge that her implicit accusation had its roots in a sad past truth, one that he would now deny to his last breath.

Polly looked up at him, and the spoon in her hand clattered into the bowl. Such stark anger stood out on his features, ignited the emerald eyes so that they flamed in his whitened face.

"Give me the bowl!" His voice was a lash as he snatched the porringer from her. "Now, get out of bed!"

Polly's knees began to tremble. She had had no idea that the humorous, easygoing Nicholas could look like this, could evince such a towering height of black fury.

"I said, stand up!"

With a little moan of fear, she stumbled to obey, although a small voice told her that she would be safer in bed. But resistance at this moment was unimaginable.

His hands gripped her shoulders through the thin cotton of her shift. "Do you dare repeat that?"

Polly shook her head, struggling to persuade her vocal chords into working order again, since a verbal response was

clearly demanded. "N-no… please," she stuttered. "1 did not really mean it… 'Twas just… just-"

"Just what?" he rasped as her voice faded. "Answer me!"

"I wanted to see what you would say," Polly whimpered miserably, hearing how lame the half-truth sounded, yet quite unable, under the piercing glare of those livid eyes, to attack by making explicit that moment of lost trust. She had needed reassurance, and she was getting it; but she had never imagined it coming in this shape.

"Now you are going to hear what I would say," he said, bringing his face very close to hers, his hands on her shoulders jerking her against him. "If you ever so much as think such a thing again, let alone articulate it, I promise that you will wish your parents had never met! Do you hear me?" Polly nodded dumbly. "You had better," he said with no diminution in ferocity, still holding her close. "Because I mean it. You will look back on Josh and his belt with nostalgia! I swear it!"

Polly swallowed, attempting to lubricate her throat, to lick dry lips. Why on earth had she expected him to enfold her in his arms, to whisper loving reassurances and sorrow for having to ask this of her, to kiss away the hurt and whisper his gratitude and admiration for her courage? Why hadn't she expected to be bullied and threatened in this savage fashion for having had such stupid, childish doubts?

"Get back into bed," Nick directed in his normal voice. "And finish your supper."

Meekly, Polly did as she was told, although her appetite for the rapidly cooling contents of the porringer had rather diminished. She took a spoonful, watching Nick warily as he began to get out of his clothes. Had Richard told him of her own modification of their plan? Presumably not, or he would have mentioned it at the beginning. She cleared her throat and put the spoon back in the bowl, waiting for him to turn 'round in response to the signal.

"Do you have something to say?" Nick approached the bed, unbuttoning the lace cuffs of his shirt. His expression

was still distinctly forbidding. "1 suggest you reflect well before you open your mouth."

Polly could bear it no longer. "1 have said I am sorry. It is most ungenerous of you to continue to be so unforgiving."

Nick regarded her gravely, then sighed. "Sweetheart, I am torn asunder by this business. Only desperation would force me to lend my countenance to it, but the situation is desperate. However, I will not oblige you to play this part. Do you understand that?"

Polly nodded, and the candlelight caught the burnished golden tones in the hair tumbling across her shoulders, deepened the green and topaz brilliance of her eyes. "Richard did not tell you of my own suggestion, then?"

Nick looked startled. "What suggestion?" He took offhis shirt, tossing it onto a stool, the gesture setting the muscles to ripple in his back.

Polly averted her eyes from the distracting sight. It didn't seem reasonable that at such a moment of intensity, lust should intrude with its insouciant, all-absorbing power.

Nick continued with his undressing while she told him of her discussion with Richard. When she had finished, he said nothing for a minute or two, but poured water from the ewer into the basin and splashed his face vigorously. Then he turned back to the bed. "There is more risk for you in such a ploy than in simply answering the call to Buckingham's bed. If he does not care for the game, he will do all in his power to injure you. He is a powerful enemy, moppet. You would do best to have him as your friend."

"As lover, you mean," she said, plucking at the coverlet with restless fingers. "I prefer to hazard his enmity."

"I do not want you to take such a risk," he said bluntly. "We will forget the matter in its entirety. I will tell De Winter and the rest that we must come up with another solution."

"Nay!" Polly pushed aside the covers and knelt on the bed, urgent in her determination. "If it is important to you, love, then it is important to me. I have said I will do it, and I

will. It is no longer a matter over which you have any say. I will partner you in this."

Nicholas looked at her, a frown between his brows, but a tiny smile in his eyes. "You grow out of hand, young Polly."

"I grow up, my lord," she replied, meeting his eye. "Responsible for myself."

"Aye," he agreed slowly. "It was inevitable, and I will learn to like it."

Kneeling up, she reached her arms around his neck. "I have been full grown for many a year, love." Her lips brushed his, her breath whispering sweet and warm. "In all essentials."

Nick laughed, running his fingers through her hair, pushing it back from her face. "Yes, indeed, a veritable crone y'are," he scoffed. "Wrinkled and bowed down by the weight of experience- Ouch! Don't you do that!" In mock indignation, he bore her backward onto the bed, but she moved against him with sinuous urgency, her mouth hungry against his, her hands sliding imperatively over his back, gripping his buttocks with harsh demand.

Nick pushed up her smock, responding to her need with his own abrupt, unceremonious craving. They came together, clung, suspeneded in a moment of rough-hewn passion that excluded all but the need to lose themselves in each other, in the ravaging torrent of pure sensation.