"You are very welcome to it."
"But do I want it?" She put aside her badinage, drew away from him with a fine strength and defiance. "Listen, sir. My Scots nurse taught me that a woman has only one heart to give in her lifetime; that, for her peace, she must hide it in the branches of a tree so high that only a strong man can climb it."
"I'm good at tree-climbing," said Christopher, with blunt acceptance of the challenge.
"Then prove it."
"Now?" he asked, glancing at a tall fir behind them.
"Oh, sir, you are blunt and forthright, you men of Nappa! You do not understand the heart of a woman."
Kit Metcalf stood to his brawny six-foot height. "I'm needing you, and cannot wait," he said, fiery and masterful. "That's the way of a man's heart."
"Then, by your leave, I shall bid you good e'en. No man will ever master me until——"
"Until?" asked Kit, submissive now that he saw her retreating up the pasture.
She dropped him another curtsey before going up the steep face of the hills. "That is the woman's secret, sir. It lives at the top of a high tree, that 'until.' Go climbing, Master Christopher!"