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week."
    "It must have been a very unpleasant business matter. You appeared quite
    provoked. I thought for a moment you might have eaten a bad bit of meat pie."
    Julian smiled faintly. "The incident was the sort that tends to interfere with a
    man's digestion but I assure you I am in excellent condition now."
    "I see." Sophy stared at him with her astonishingly level gaze for a moment
    longer, nodded to herself and turned back to the window.
    Julian scowled. "Now it's my turn to ask you if something is wrong, Sophy."
    "Not in the least."
    Arms folded across his chest, Julian contemplated the tassels on his polished
    Hessians for a few seconds before he 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