It wasn’t a lie as much as she wished it were. March was more stunning every day. It was a sin that he could be this attractive and not be the person that she wanted.

“Seeing the House of Cruse on you again brings me much joy.”

She flushed at the words. “I never thought that I’d see it again.”

“Why did your father get rid of you in the first place?” he asked calmly. As if it wasn’t a loaded question.

“I’ve only heard the story he’s told the rest of the court.”

“He buried you, Kerrigan. Yet you were safe in the mountain all along,” he said, holding her tighter. “Why would he do that?”

“He just wanted to keep me safe.” With the shift in her relationship with Kivrin, she couldn’t help defending him. Even though she had wondered the same thing for years.

“Why didn’t you come back? Why did you let us all think you were gone?” He drew her off the dance floor and into a private alcove. She glanced behind her, looking for the safety of the crowd. “Why did you let me think you were gone? You could have sent a letter… anything.”

Kerrigan bit her ruby-red lip and didn’t answer him. There was no reason for what she’d done. She could have reached out and let someone know. But she’d been so young and so afraid. She hadn’t been wanted. It was enough to keep her in one place.

“Answer me,” he snapped. Kerrigan balked at the tone. He hadn’t used that tone with her in years.

“Don’t speak to me like that.” He grasped her arm and pulled her even farther away from the safety of the party. “March, stop!”

“I want answers, Kerrigan. I’m tired of tiptoeing around the situation. Give me what I desire.”

“I don’t have answers. I was abandoned as a child. I didn’t know what was going on, and by the time I did, I’d been buried. What child thinks that they’re wanted after that? I buried my life that day.”

“You didn’t bury your betrothal contract as easily,” he growled at her.

She stepped back, but he still had her arm. “Release me.”

“No.”

“You’re hurting me,” she said, trying to wrench her arm back.

“You’re a Society member. You’ve been through worse.”

“What is wrong with you?”

“How long have you been fucking him?”

Kerrigan startled at the brutality of the question and the careless use of the vile word. It said so much and so little about what had actually happened last night. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Everyone knows it. Don’t try to play dumb.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” she repeated.