Never mind the answer then, payments can wait. He can name whatever he wants for all she cares, if only because she thinks he would ask for something trivial. He doesn't strike her as covetous.

She doesn't notice any tension, perhaps she only wishes it away, moving away then to step closer to Joshua, looking over her shoulder to see that Spike follows. She does like having someone to pamper and a good reason to, when Joshua is so easily pleased with marshmallows and other simple things. Still, she has a suspicion that Spike is just the same.

"What are you hungry for? Pheasant? Rabbit? Name it and it will be served," she would send the maids on a kitchen rush that is.