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in plenty of pepper. If you have not enough, I will give you more. Use all the broken meats for pasties, and be sure that ten at least are made for the high table. Doubtless his lordship will wish to hunt with my father tomorrow and they will need to break their fast with more than bread and wine."
    "Yes, my lady, but—"
    "But what?" Elizabeth said, turning furiously on her servant. "Am I the cook here or you? Can you do nothing without my help? Shall I come and stir your pots?"
    "No, my lady," the man replied meekly, backing away. It was not unknown for her ladyship to use her nails when she was in this temper. "I only wish to say that there is no time to bake extra bread and we are short because tomorrow is baking day."
    "Idiot! Send to the alehouse and take all they have. Send also to the village and scour the huts. You should get a loaf or half a loaf from each. If they have none it will do them no harm, fighting men must eat first. Yes, yes," she said sharply, turning on the page who had come to tell her that Lord Hereford had arrived, "I am coming."
    Damn the man, she thought, tears rising to her eyes as she smoothed her hair with her hands, pinched her cheeks, and bit her lips, he must needs arrange it so that the first time he sees me in two years I am dressed like a slattern and all unkempt.
    She knew neither of course was true. Elizabeth was most particular about her appearance, even in private. What she meant was that she was not perfumed and bejeweled as she would be in full court dress, as Roger had always seen her previously. It did not occur to Elizabeth to wonder why she should care how she looked if she was truly unwilling to awaken Hereford's passion, nor why her breath should catch when she saw his rather slight form poised before the fire in conversation with Alan of Evesham. His cloak had been cast aside and his mail hood pushed back, his gold hair vying in brilliance with the embroidery of his surcoat.
    Elizabeth checked her footsteps and deliberately advanced more slowly, struggling also to control her breathing, which seemed to have gone a little out of order. Alan touched his master's arm and Hereford turned quickly, leaving his sentence unfinished. He started to come toward her and then stopped.
    "My God," he breathed softly, "I had forgotten how beautiful you are. No man could trust his memory for that. I kept telling myself that I exaggerated, but in fact you are lovelier than anything I dreamed."
    Elizabeth stopped too, clasping her hands together to stop them from trembling. "What a graceful remark! Did you spend your entire ride here planning the words, my lord?"
    That broke Hereford's reverent mood and he came forward again swiftly, laughing. "I might count on you, Lady Elizabeth, to depress my pretensions and puncture my vanity. Nonetheless, I swear that it was you alone that brought forth the praise. I had no such sweet words in mind at all. I could think of nothing the entire way but how cold I was and what a fool a man must be to love a country with such a climate."
    "Then perhaps you should have stayed where you were well satisfied. What should you return in such haste for? Is there anything of value here that you feel cannot wait forever?"
    Hereford took her hands in his; she attempted to pull them away, but his grip tightened painfully and she desisted.
    "Your hands are like ice, my dear, and you are trembling. What is the matter?"
    "I am cold, my lord. That is all the matter. What do you expect when you descend on us thus without warning and I must go into that freezing barracks below to see it made comfortable for your men."
    "I am sorry if I have made trouble, Lady Elizabeth, but I—" His blue eyes had been darkening steadily as his glance swept over her, and his expression was frankly covetous. "I just felt that my lands might wait."
    Elizabeth freed herself with a desperate jerk and walked to the hearth. She was sorry a moment later because she could not stop shaking and in the