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you do not approve.”
    “You are very brave. Who can disapprove of that? Still, I am accustomed to women being protected.”
    “Aye, protected. And commanded. They go together, don't they?” She turned her head to the fire for a moment, and then looked back and deliberately changed the subject. “You intend to try and regain your lands still.”
    “It has been my hope.”
    “But each year that passes, it becomes more unlikely.” She said it like she was finishing his own thought, and she was, but it was a thought that he rarely admitted to. Still, he found that he couldn't summon any anger.
    Since she had come he hadn't felt like he was with a stranger, but rather in the company of an old friend. That first long silence had been filled with an oddly familiar connection that had gotten deeper as they spoke. Every passing moment had served to ply an invisible cord, like a tether between their souls.
    Was it her frankness? His need for distraction? All he knew was that his sense of this woman's spirit was heightened. The air in the shelter was heavy with a peculiar intensity. An intimacy. He felt raw and oddly free.
    “Why do you wear men's clothes?” he asked, much preferring to talk about her than himself.
    She raised her eyebrows in amusement. “Why do
you
wear men's clothes?”
    “I am a man.”
    “Nay. You wear them because they suit men's work. That is why they are men's clothes. I find myself doingmen's work now.” She smiled. It was a nice smile. It animated her face. She didn't smile often these days. He just knew that. “They were my brother's garments. I began wearing them to work with our horses. Then, with the death, gowns became impractical. I didn't come home with many gowns anyway.”
    “From the abbey? Did you live there from girlhood?”
    “Nay, only four years. When my father went to fight in the duke's cause, he put me there for safety. One of his vassals gave a home to Catherine, my sister, but I was not welcome. I did not like the abbey at first, but I found contentment there.”
    “Ascanio says that you will go back. That you will take vows.”
    “Aye.”
    “Why?”
    She looked away and did not answer at once. He sensed vulnerability in her, and was pleased to find it. “I belong there. There is no place for me in the world outside of there,” she finally said.
    “There is here. With your people.”
    “There is no place for me here. I won't marry and I do not like women's things. You kindly call me unusual. My people think that I am unnatural.”
    “They think that you are
super
natural.”
    “It is the same thing. Today I am a saint. Next year the crops fail and I am a witch. It is a thin line that I walk through no choice of my own.”
    She abruptly rose and fetched the box she had brought. “Your meal is done? Then let us play draughts.”
    He poured more wine while she set out the pieces. He had expected a desperate night, but the shadow of death had been banished by this woman's presence and thestrange bond he felt with her. He made his first move and watched as she considered her own.
    He had to know if she was with him in the way that he thought.
    “It is strange, but since you came I have had this feeling that I have known you … years.” He spoke words that he had used before in flattery and seduction. This was the first time he had ever meant them.
    “Aye. It happens sometimes.” Her gaze rose to meet his, and it was as if she could see into his heart and knew him like a mother knows a son, or a woman her husband. “It comes from you. You expect to die. You have nothing to lose. You are open. I am just the one who is here. If Ascanio had come instead of me, it would have been the same. But I know what you mean.”
    She had felt this before. It was an astounding thought. He continued the game in silence. He could tell she did not want to speak of it.
    She may have been here before, but she was wrong about one thing. If Ascanio had come it would not have been the