He kissed me back, more deeply and insistently."Ow!" I pulled back, just an inch. "I'm still sore. From last night. Pash-rash" I smiled, indicating th... skin around my lips and my chin, still heavily made up."Oh!" he said, the disappointment obvious. "I'm sorry." It's not your fault," I said, and then smiled. "Well, not entirely, anyway. You just have to be gentle with me." I gave him another kiss; soft, dry, lips only. "Like that," I whispered, our noses still touching.He kissed back again,. .''I see.' An image of Angela crying on her bed flashed through meand I winced. 'Angie,' I asked slowly and she looked at meworriedly, 'the birth certificate, passport and all the otherstuff, is it... well, you know... is it real?'She nodded. 'Absolutely. I requested it through officialchannels and then, once I got the documents, destroyed allrecords of the order. Those documents are substantiated bychanges in the official records, Liz, it's all very official andreal. Why?'Why? Could I tell her. This time he had seen her completely naked.“I told you ... I tripped.”“You’re not supposed to do that either.” He grinned.“Well, I’m not all hot and sweaty any more, that’s for sure,” she said, taking his jibe cheerfully. She decided to give him some back. “Thanks for saving me, even if you peeked while doing it.”He laughed. “You just made me promise I wouldn’t peek while you were getting in. You didn’t say anything about when you were getting out.”“You’re just a nasty old pervert,” she said,. An hour after noon, perhaps. My mother takes a nap during the heat of the day after dinner." I will be waiting at the tree an hour after noon."He kissed her once lightly before helping her up the slant of the tree. Then he fetched his horse and she got on it again. She clutched him as the horse ambled back the way they had come. It was policy. The closer she hugged him, the less he would think; the more evident her dependency on his support, the harder it would be for him to imagine her riding.