Joanna rode with Hugh pillion behind her. She tried to think of the Templars, of their meeting with the order, but was distracted and undone by pure sensation. The silk dress seemed to have stimulated her to more passion. All she could think of was when she and Hugh would join again in love.

Perhaps the gown is bewitched, she thought, her hips and the space between her thighs tingling as the silk slid against her like Hugo’s tongue and the galloping of Lucifer jolted deep inside her.

What if we are making children by this lovemaking? she asked herself, but then all she could think of were youngsters with black hair and blue eyes; strong sons and clever daughters. She would teach them to read. She must teach Hugo to read and reward his progress with kisses.

“Is the sun too hot for you, Joanna? We can stop.”

She could hear the need in his voice and feel it, hard as a saddle pommel, against her buttocks. A daydream of lust flared through her but she managed to croak, “We have no more time. We must reach Templecombe today.”

Hugh kissed the top of her head. “We are already within sight of the combe, as you would know if your eyes were as strong as your heart.”

She jabbed at his rock-hard thigh with her fingers. “Instead of taunting, my knight, why not send your men ahead as messengers?”

Then they would be alone, she was about to add, but Hugh was already shouting orders and the road was suddenly filled with dust and flying stones as the troop galloped away. She felt the ground shuddering and then all became still, a thread of birdsong the only break in the silence.

“There.” Hugh pointed to a small wicker enclosure off the road; a place where herdsmen kept animals in times of winter flooding. Leaning down from his horse, he untied the hurdle gate and urged Lucifer inside. The stallion whickered softly, then bent his head to a mound of windfall crab apples, clearly left in the pen as fodder.

“Eat all those, boy, and you will be ill,” Hugh warned, sliding off the horse’s back and leading him away from the tempting pile. He tethered Lucifer by a hawthorn bush and swiftly gathered the horse a few apples and more grass and hay from the surrounding hedgerow.

Joanna looked about. They were in a hollow of landscape and the spring sun was very warm. Above her the sky was as blue as a sparrow’s egg, threaded through with a latticework of branches from a stand of wild cherries, apples, and black poplars.

The pen, bordered by sturdy wicker hurdles, was filled with packed-down sheep dung, but there was a smooth round oval of stone beneath an old, cracked apple tree whose blossoms were just starting to wilt. Hugh swept his cloak over the boulder.

“We are hidden by the tree,” he said as she alighted from the horse. “You are becoming more nimble at that. Soon you will be riding alone.”

Joanna shook her head. “Truly, have we time? Will the Templar Knights not be looking for us, as soon as your men tell them we are coming?”

Hugh shrugged. “No grief to me. I will say Lucifer cast a shoe.”

“But to lie to men in holy orders!”

His blue eyes flashed black for an instant. “Why not? They do naught for David, though they are but a two-day journey or less from West Sarum! I think to lie is no sin.”

Her previous desire was giving way to scruples and hesitation. “We are on a road.”

“We are off a road and under a tree.” He caught her round the middle and drew her close, unwinding her from her travel cloak. “It is too warm for this when you are not riding, and I wish to see you in your pretty gown by sunlight.”

She knew by the glint in his eye he meant more than looking. “Hugh, someone may come.”

“At this hour, so close to noon? I think not. All folk will be at their board and dining tables.” He let her go, stepped back, and motioned with his fingers. “Do a curtsy for me, sweet. I like the way you rustle as you move.”

“You are wild,” she remonstrated, although in truth it was balm to her, to be admired and yes, to be, lusted over. Thomas had lost interest in her almost as soon as he had plundered her virginity. Hugh seemed to want her still, as urgently as she desired him.

Flattered, she spread her golden skirts and swept as low as if he was King John.

“Hey, hey, you will get dirt on your gown.” Hugh clasped her elbows and drew her up to his lips for a swift, tickling kiss. “A lady never bows so far, ’tis her knight that should be grateful.”

He cupped her bottom in one of his large hands and tongued her ear close to where her veil was pinned. His act pulsed through her like a shower of sparks.

“I am always grateful.”

He traced the length of her thigh with his fingers and the furnace between her thighs glowed hot in answer. She touched him in return, running a hand across his flanks, wishing she could undo his clothes as easily as he always seemed to undo hers.

“My lady.”

He kissed the side of her neck.

“Always my lady.” Abruptly, he moved sideways and she lost her footing as he coiled a muscular arm about her waist. Before he could guess what he was about, he plucked her from the churned-up earth and sheep dung.

“Hugo!” Her arms flailing, she tried to beat his legs, but he ignored her protests, upending her further so her bottom was raised and her head down.

“Such a juicy little rump, tilted at me. I have a mind to enjoy you this way. A lush pleasure for both of us, I warrant.”

His other hand dived under her gown and his fingers kneaded her bottom. Dizzy with sensation, she closed her eyes and now she felt the boulder warm beneath her belly. She was draped over the round stone, her face nestled in Hugh’s cloak. He had put his cloak over the boulder, she realized, as his fingers pleasured her still more intimately, skimming gently through her folds as a bee might rumple through the heart of a flower. He had planned this.

“Ravisher!” she managed to spit at him, but he chuckled, fingering her more until she mewed with pleasure.

“No other lady but you, Joanna. You give my fancy flight. Hell’s teeth, but you are delectable! Such a pink, round—”

He came into her then, fiercely and strongly, and her last scruple, of being seen, was gone. The golden gown seemed to pillow them both and for an instant she had again a sense of a different time: another knight and his lady had joined in this way, blessed by silk and sunshine.