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glanced up with a quizzical gleam in his eye. "I think it would be best if we came to an understanding about one or two small matters, Madam Wife."
    She glanced at him. "Yes, my lord?"
    "A few weeks ago you gave me your list of demands."
    She frowned. "True, my lord."
    "At the time I was busy and neglected to make up a list of my own."
    "I already know your demands, my lord. You want an heir and no trouble."
    "I would like to take this opportunity to be a bit more precise."
    "You wish to add to your list? That's hardly fair, is it?"
    "I did not say I was adding to the list, merely clarifying it." Julian paused. He saw the wariness in her turquoise eyes and smiled slightly. "Don't look so worried, my dear. The first item on my list, an heir, is plain enough. It's the second item I wish to clarify."
    "No trouble. It seems simple enough."
    "It will be once you understand exactly what I mean by it."
    "For example?"
    "For example, it will save us both a great deal of trouble if you make it a policy never to lie to me."
    Her eyes widened. "I have no intention of doing any such thing, my lord."
    "Excellent. Because you should know you would not be able to get away with it. There is something about your eyes, Sophy, that would betray you every time. And I would be most annoyed if I should detect a lie in your eyes. You understand me perfectly?"
    "Perfectly, my lord."
    "Then let us return to my earlier question. I believe I asked you if anything was wrong and you stated that there was nothing wrong. Your eyes say otherwise, my dear."
    She toyed with the loose ribbon on her reticule. "Am I to have no privacy for my thoughts, my lord?"
    He scowled. "Were your thoughts so very private at that moment that you felt obliged to conceal them from your husband?"
    "No," she said simply. "I merely assumed you would not be pleased if I spoke them aloud so I kept them to myself."
    He had set out to make a point but now Julian found himself swamped with curiosity. "I would like to hear them, if you please."
    "Very well, I was engaging in a bit of deductive logic, my lord. You had just admitted that the business matters you had attended to prior to our marriage had been most provoking and I was hazarding a guess as to what sort of business matter you meant."
    "And to what conclusion did your deductive logic lead you?"
    "To the conclusion you had undoubtedly had some difficulty when you had informed your current mistress that you were getting married. One had hardly blame the poor woman. She has, after all, been doing all the work of a wife and now you announce you intend to give the title to another applicant for the post. A rather unskilled applicant, at that. I expect she enacted you a grand tragedy and that was what provoked you. Tell me, is she an actress or a ballet dancer?"
    Julian's first impulse was an absurd desire to laugh. He quelled it instantly in the interests of husbandly discipline. "You overstep yourself, madam," he said through his teeth.
    "You are the one who demanded I tell you all my private thoughts." The loose feather in her bonnet bobbed. "Will you agree now that there are times when I should be allowed some privacy?"
    "You should not be speculating about such things in the first place."
    "I am quite certain you are right but unfortunately I have very little control over my inner speculations."
    "Perhaps you can be taught some measure of control," Julian suggested.
    "I doubt it." She smiled at him suddenly and the warmth of that smile made Julian blink. "Tell me," Sophy continued impishly, "was my guess accurate?"
    "The business I attended to before leaving London last week is none of your affair."
    "Ah, I see the way of it now. I am to have no privacy for my speculations but you are to have all the solitude you wish for your own. That hardly seems fair, my lord. In any event, if my errant thoughts are going to upset you so much, don't you think it would be better if I kept them to myself?"
    Julian leaned forward without any