And just three weeks ago now, helping to tie up her roses, he had touched her, and she had known.

But even then, until the night of Courtier's accident, she had not dared to realize.

More concerned now for him than for herself, she asked herself a thousand times if she had been to blame.

She had let him grow fond of her, a woman out of court, a dead woman! An unpardonable sin! Yet surely that depended on what she was prepared to give! And she was frankly ready to give everything, and ask for nothing.

He knew her position, he had told her that he knew.