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Leo folded the spectacles and tucked theently he tilted her face upith both hands He had ht darkly

"Are you ready?" he asked

She nodded within the careful bracket of his palhtly to hers, kissing her with careful, unde theing her fully against him She was slender but coin toon herwith his tongue until he felt the vibration of her softhis head, Leo looked into her flushed face He was so ray of her eyes that it was a struggle to remember what he’d meant to ask her

"The question," he reminded himself aloud, and shook his head to clear it "Here it is A farmer has twelve sheep All but seven die How rin spread across his face as he watched her puzzle it out

Catherine scowled "That was a trick Ask ain," he said

"Another one," she insisted

A husky laugh escaped hiht" He reached for her and lowered his head, and she stiffened

"What are you doing?"

"One kiss, one question," he reminded her

Catherine lookedback as he pulled her against him once more This tient, his tongue sinking into the sweet, warm interior of herdelicately in his hair

Leo went dizzy with desire and pleasure He couldn’t pull her body close enough, he needed parts of her he couldn’t reach His hands shook with the need to find the sweet pale skin beneath the heavy fabric of her bodice He kept trying to feel more of her, kiss heron his tongue with a little sound of pleasure The hair on the back of his neck lifted as a chill of delight climbed up his spine to the base of his skull

He broke the kiss, gasping

"Ask me a question," she reminded him thickly

Leo could barely remember his own naainst hied her "Some months have thirty-one days, soht days?"

A perplexed furrow appeared between her fine brows "One"

"All of theentle reply He tried to look sye

"Ask me another one," Catherine said, furious and deterhter "I can’t think of any more My brain is deprived of blood Accept it, Marks, you lost the--"

She grabbed the lapels of his coat and dragged him back to her, and Leo’sThe a forith her in his arlass forcing house And he possessed her lips with rough, wholehearted ardor, reveling at the feel of her body arching against his He was dying of lust, his flesh heavy and aching with the need to take her He kissed her without restraint, sucking, al the inside of her mouth in ways almost too delicious to bear

Before he lost all semblance of self-control, Leo tore his lips froainst his chest

Another question, he thought dimly, and forced as left of his

His voice was hoarse, as if he’d just tried to breathe in fire "How many animals of each species did Moses take into the ark?"

Her ansas ed to say "It was Noah, not Moses"

But he no longer found the gaer seeht and close Their bodies cast a single shadow that stretched along a garden path

"We’ll call it a draw," Leo ht," she said faintly "I can’t think at all"

They waited a little longer, while she leaned into the wild rhythm of his heart They were both in a daze, mutually occupied with a question that couldn’t be asked An answer that couldn’t be given

Letting out an unsteady sigh, Leo eased her away He winced as the fabric of his trousers chafed his aroused flesh Thank God the cut of his coat was long enough to conceal the proble her spectacles from his pocket, he replaced them carefully on her nose

He offered his arm in wordless invitation--a truce--and Catherine took it

"What does ‘bugger’ arden

"If I told you," he said, "it would lead to ihts And I kno you hate those"

Leo spent much of the next day at a strea the best site for a heel andthe area The wheel would be approximately sixteen feet in diameter, equipped with a row of buckets that would e a series of wooden fluate approxienerously sized tenant far out plots with the tenants and laborers, hah a cold, muddy stream, Leo rode back to Ramsay House It was late afternoon, the sun a condensed yellow, the meadows still and breezeless Leo was tired, sweat-soaked, and annoyed froht that all the ro out in nature had certainly never been involved in an irrigation project

His boots were so caked with mud that he went to the kitchen entrance, left the feet The cook and a h, while Win and Beatrix sat at the worktable, polishing silver

"Hello, Leo," Beatrix said cheerfully

"Heavens, what a sight you are," Win exclaimed

Leo smiled at both of them, then wrinkled his nose as he detected a bitter stench in the air "I didn’t think it was possible for any odor to eclipse mine at the moment What is it? Metal polish?"

"No, actually it’s…" Win looked guarded "Well, it’s a kind of dye"

"For cloth?"

"For hair," Beatrix said "You see, Miss Marks wants to darken her hair before the ball, but she was afraid of using dye fro last tiested a recipe that her own ether with vinegar and--"

"Why is Marks dyeing her hair?" Leo asked, striving to keep his tone ordinary, even as his soul revolted against the idea That beautiful hair, gleaold and pale amber, covered with a dull, dark stain

Win replied cautiously "I believe she wishes to be less … visible … at the ball, with so uests in attendance I didn’t press her for answers, as I felt she was entitled to her privacy Leo, please don’t distress her byit"

"Does no one find it odd that we have a servant who insists on disguising herself?" Leo asked "Is this faeness without even asking questions?"

"It’s not all that strange," Beatrix said "Many anie their colors Cuttlefish, for exas, and of course chah clenched teeth He left the kitchen with purposeful strides, while Win and Beatrix stared after hi facts about cha," Win o out to the stables and find Ca her own tense reflection in the looking glass Several articles were neatly arranged in front of her: folded toweling, a comb, a pitcher and basin, and a pot filled with a strained dark sludge that looked like boot blacking She had painted a single lock of hair with the stuff, and aiting for it to take effect, to see what color had been imparted After her last disaster with colorant, when her hair had turned green, she was taking no chances