"Goodness, my love, you ought be careful, our dear friends might think you are not yourself." Her eyes crinkle, so doting, so lovingly - so worried, wasn't she? Yet her fingers squeezed warmly below the table, firm even pressure that worked along the length with a slow stroke.

And with it she lowered her gaze to hide the tease in the corner of her smile, the little bite of her lip that said - her eyes raking over him warmly with it. Oh, she wanted him and that was the answer to the silent question.

But she took some mercy, with a brief excuse to her company, she ventured her voice across Sweeney to catch the ambassadors curious glance. "Please do not mind my husband, my lord, when he gets too involved in a story, he forgets himself. I think he has been couped up too long, he longs for a good long ride when the weather clears."