Which threat had the desired effect, for instantly the lashes parted and a pair of sea-blue eyes looked angrily into his.
“So—I have brought you to terms. Well, and what think you of my uniform?”
“Methinks,” and her voice was not pleasant to hear, “that ’tis most fitting apparel for one who refuses allegiance to his king and—uses his greater strength against a woman.”
He flung her hands away with what, for him, was near to roughness. “By the eternal stars, Joscelyn, your tongue has a double edge!”
“A woman has need of a sharp tongue since Providence gave her but indifferent fists.”
“In sooth, it is the truth with you,” he cried, his good-humour restored as he again caught one of her slender hands and held it up for inspection. “Nature wasted not much material here; methinks it would scarce fill a fly with apprehension.”
But she wrung it out of his grasp, and, with an exclamation of annoyance, turned once more to the window. His expression changed, and he stood some moments regarding her in silence. At last he said:—
“Joscelyn, ’tis now more than two years since you came to live neighbours with us, and for the last half of that time you and I have done little else than quarrel. But on my part this disagreement has not gone below the surface; rather has it been a covering for a tenderer feeling. I have heard it said that a woman knows instinctively when a man loves her. Have you spelled out my heart under this show of dispute?”
She shrugged her shoulders mockingly. “I am but an indifferent speller, Master Clevering.”
“Right well do I know that, having seen some of your letters to Betty,” he answered with ready acquiescence. Whereat she flashed upon him a glance of indignant protest; but he went on calmly, as though he noted not the look: “But you are a fair reader, and mayhap I used a wrong term. Have you not read my heart all these months?”