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Here she glanced over her left shoulder and smiled winsomely at Odo of Winchester.
    Edward considered her. “I hear something untoward in your tone,” he warned.
    She blushed again, this time without meaning to. “I am sure I do not know what Your Majesty mea—” she stammered.
    â€œStop that,” Edward interrupted harshly. He sat up, right suddenly, glaring at her. “You know precisely what I mean.”
    The bishop and a thane or two coughed, shifted their weight, frowned ponderously.
    She opened her mouth in protest, reconsidered, and pressed her lips shut. She was blushing so intensely the skin around her nose ached. She clutched her hands together, almost prayerlike, at her breast, and bowed her head. “I am sure Your Majesty will be generous enough to disregard any . . . untoward comments I appeared to have been making.”
    â€œI would do that willingly, with a generous heart, if I thought your shame at this moment were sincere,” Edward said harshly. He swung his long legs around so that his feet were on the floor by her; she jerked away from him, as if he might strike her. “But I have seen you, Godiva; I have watched how you speak to men when you want something from them. I can count the different shades of red you turn, depending on your purpose—which is usually Leofric’s purpose. The argument you’ve brought to me is not unsound—you may tell your beloved Edgiva as much, for I am sure she is the author of it. It does not give me the power to actually hobble the great earls, and I need that more than anything, but as I said: it is not unsound. Sadly, the very fact you are delivering it in this manner that you do requires me to shun it.”
    â€œWhat manner?” she demanded, looking up at him, hands still clasped before her chest worrying the rubies on her necklace.
    Edward said stonily, “If you had trusted your argument enough to simply tell it to me, I would heartily have heard it. But now, to accept your argument is to accept the manner of its presentation, and I’ll not do that. I will not have you say that you seduced me into listening to you.”
    â€œYour Majesty!” she protested. Quickly she collected her three layers of silk tunic-skirts and rose to standing.
    â€œNone of that, Godiva,” he said in a disgusted, nasal tenor voice.
    â€œI would never say that—”
    He stood up and towered over her; she winced from the suddenness of it. He was a tall man and spoke directly downward to the top of her head. “Of course you would not say it. You would imply it. You are a mistress of the indirect, do you think I do not know it? I’ve watched you at your work, Godiva, I know your rule. If your plea includes so much as an inviting smile, I must reject the plea, or I will be perceived as having fallen for the smile.”
    â€œPerceived by whom?” she demanded, trying to think how to salvage this. She had not expected any such astuteness from him; he had seemed socially inept in the past.
    Edward sat on the bed again and gestured around the room. “You have done it before witnesses! Foolish woman, that is your great error. You shall get no satisfaction from me. You are dismissed. See her out, Alden, and then explain to me why you let her enter in the first place.”
    And with that he lay back on the bed, brought his muddy boots upon the gold coverlet, and closed his eyes.

CHAPTER 5
    H aving failed to attain royal endorsement, Godiva now pursued the ecclesiastical.
    Only the three great earls and the two archbishops were accommodated, all together with their retinues, in the hall. The rest of the Council attendees brought tents and pavilions and made shift in the courtyard or out on the green. Happily the weather had been agreeable for March, but Godiva was glad not to be among those awakening with cold dew on her face. On the other hand, it would have been a welcome change to go out into