Alys rang for candles and a glass of mulled wine for the old man.

'I'm weary,' he said frankly. 'It's a long time coming, this baby of Catherine's. When is yours due?'

'End of November,' Alys said. 'As we start preparing for the Christmas feast'

The lord nodded, his eyelids drooping. 'That will be merry,' he said. 'For us at any rate. And what d'you think of Catherine? Will she have another soon after this?'

Alys shrugged. 'She's from sickly stock,' she said disparagingly. 'But there's no reason why she should not have more. She may take time to conceive though, she's not very fertile, is she? This one took her nine years!'

The old lord moved restively. 'I should have matched him elsewhere,' he said irritably. 'But it was so easy, with the wardship in my hands and all. But if I had known she would have been so slow to take, I would never have put her with Hugo.'

Alys went behind his chair and stroked his forehead. He lay back against the hard chair back, quietened by her touch.

'Don't fret,' she said. 'By this time next year you will have two grandsons – hers and mine. By this time next year I shall be pregnant by Hugo again.'

'Setting up a stud?' he asked, chuckling with his eyes closed.

'I want to stay here,' Alys said frankly. 'And I want Hugo. And I want your protection. What better way?'

The old lord shook his head. 'There is no better way,' he said. 'While you are carrying my grandson I am yours to command. You know what this child means to me.' Alys nodded. 'I know,' she said. The old lord sighed and sat quietly for a little while. With slow easy strokes Alys dragged her fingers across his forehead, feeling the soft ridges of the lined old skin under her fingertips. 'I shall give you land, Alys,' Lord Hugh said, luxuriating in her sure touch. 'When your son is born. I shall endow you with some land. A woman like you should have a little wealth, a little power.'

Alys smiled, her touch on his forehead never hesitated. 'I should like the farm next door to old Morach's cottage,' she said, without hesitation. 'It's a pretty place and Morach had a claim to some of the fields. It would please me to take the whole farm off them. It will repay them for their robbery of Morach.' She gave a soft little laugh. 'Some symmetry,' she said.

'Maybe,' Lord Hugh replied. 'I'll have David or Hugo look into it.'

Alys nodded, the gentle pressure of her fingertips slowing to keep time with his deeper breathing. In a few moments he was asleep, and she pulled up a stool to the foot of his chair and sat down, leaning back against him, watching the fire.

In his sleep his hand stretched out and touched her head. Alys untied the hood and put it to one side and let his hand rest on her rumpled curls. They sat together for a long while. Alys watched the fire and felt the comfortable warmth of his hand on her head like a benediction. She closed her eyes. The warm, safe, clean smell of the room and the touch of a hand on her head was like the abbey and Mother Hildebrande's touch. Alys closed her eyes too and waited.

He was not long. Hugo came striding in, his cape pushed back off his shoulders and his cap askew from his ride, and checked on the threshold at the picture they made: his father's familiar profile softened in sleep and Alys' young beauty under his protection.

'Hush,' Alys said, getting to her feet and drawing Hugo from the room. 'He is tired. I have been writing letters for him all afternoon.'

'I've been riding,' Hugo said. 'Catherine was weary after dinner.'

'Then only we two are awake,' Alys said, with a little secretive smile. 'Only we two, awake, and…' She paused, glancing at Hugo with a look which promised everything. 'Only we two, awake and… restless,' she said.

Hugo shot her a quick, measuring look from under his dark eyebrows. 'Where are Catherine's women?' he asked. 'I left Ruth and Margery sitting in Catherine's bedchamber. Where are the others?'

'Gone into Castleton,' Alys said. 'You could walk into my room and there would be no one to see you pass.'

Hugo nodded. 'Go ahead of me,' he said. 'See that Catherine is still asleep and her door is shut.'

Alys nodded and led the way down the winding staircase and through the antechamber before the great hall, and then up to the ladies' gallery above. The fire burned low in the grate. The door to Catherine's chamber was closed. Alys and Hugo slipped across the gallery and into Alys' room, as silent as ghosts.

Hugo shut the door behind them and dropped the bolt home. 'Here is a change, Alys,' he said. 'After that first time I thought you found I was not to your taste.'

Alys shook her head to loosen her hair and it tumbled around her face in a shower of brass and gold. She tossed it from her eyes and smiled confidently at Hugo, measuring his rising desire.

'You took me as a virgin, an ordinary girl,' she said. 'It will never be like that again. I withdrew from you to learn my skills. I had to find my teachers, I had to know some deep arts before I could lie with you.' 'What arts?' Hugo asked; his voice shook slightly.

'You know of them,' Alys said simply. 'You have dreamed of them, you have hardly believed they could be possible between a man and a woman.'

Hugo touched his lips with his tongue. 'I have heard,' he began, 'of arts that a woman, a skilled woman, can use which can make a man crazy for her. And I have heard that if you lie with a witch she can take you to the very borders of heaven – and beyond. And I've heard that you feel unearthly pleasure, pleasure beyond that any ordinary woman can give you.' He gave a nervous excited laugh. 'All lies and trickery, I suppose?' Alys shook her head slowly, her hair swung forward. Hugo leaned towards her. 'You smell of honey,' he said.

'All those things I can do,' Alys promised. She paused, weighing her words. 'If you dare.'

'I dare,' Hugh said quickly. 'I desire them.' Alys smiled and crossed the room. Hugo followed her with his eyes. She opened the chest of herbs and took out a flagon of spiced wine and two cups. As he watched she poured a cup for both of them, turned aside for one second – half a second only – and palmed a fat pinch of crushed earthroot into his cup.

'I drink to your desire,' she said. 'May it bring you all that you dream.'

Hugo raised the cup and downed it in three impatient gulps. 'And your desire, Alys?' he asked. 'When you last lay with me you had no desire.'

Alys shrugged. 'I was an ordinary maid,' she said. 'You asked me to put aside my power for love of you -and so I did. But then you found – did you not? – that there are many ordinary maids in the castle. But only one witch.' Hugo laughed, a little shaky. 'A witch,' he repeated.

'With witches' skills.' He moistened his lips with his tongue. 'I scarcely believe in witchcraft, Alys. You will have to deal with a modern man, an unbeliever.'

Alys smiled, confident in Morach's herbal skills. 'Oh, Hugo,' she said, a laugh in the back of her voice. 'You believe and disbelieve at will. But when you are out on a cold moor with the mist around you and the river rising, you see dark magic and know fear. And when you are here with me, in this room, you will be enchanted and know your deepest desires.' 'You've changed,' he said.

Alys nodded. 'I have found my mistress, the dark mistress of all wise women, and I have learned from her. I had to become one with her as if I were her lover. And now I know her skills.'

'What are they?' Hugo asked. 'Your mistress' skills?' Alys put her hands to the back of her gown and slowly, almost casually, began to untie the ribbon laces. Hugo watched in silence as she shrugged it off her shoulder. She was naked underneath. She pushed it down over her hips and stepped out of it. She wore no shift, no undergown. Hugo hissed an indrawn breath at the sight of her body and at the realization that she had planned this seduction. She had dressed herself after her bath so that she would be naked before him this day. He reached out to snatch at her but Alys gestured to the chair.