“I cannot condone such a hasty marriage. She will need some time to accommodate herself to this.”

“She had weeks in London for that.”

“As her mind is now, it will be little more than rape if you do not wait. Or are you one of those men who assume that women can be given pleasure even as they are forced?”

The body pressing her side stiffened. She looked up and saw a tightness in his expression.

“I am not a man who believes that, Nesta. Which is why I want you to change her thinking.”

“It is not for me to change her thinking, but you. If you became familiar to her, she might soften her opinions.”

“I do not think she will soften any opinion until you give her permission. Since your plan to spirit her away has failed, it is time for you to do so. For the sake of your family, and her.”

He raised his hand to signal a stop to the men behind him, and guided his horse into the moor. “Now, we will rest, and then the bard can walk again and you will return to the wagon. Since we speak of my marriage to your sister, the pleasure I have taken in holding you here should not continue.”

“He watches you. They all do. When you came back to the main fire that first night, all the men watched, but especially him.”

Genith’s low words whispered into Nesta’s ear as they lay beneath the stars, wrapped together in their blankets. All around them other bundles slept, the women on one side of the fire and the men on the other.

Nesta knew which man Genith meant. She had walked away from Marcus that night to break the magic of his eyes, but her heart had pounded so loud and long that Dylan’s music barely penetrated her awareness. It had pounded the same way most of this afternoon after his hands lifted her down from the horse.

“It was not unkind, the way he looked at you, but a little frightening and dangerous,” Genith added in a thoughtful tone. “I don’t think a man has ever looked at me like that.”

“That is because you are virtuous. I am a whore, so men feel free to look. It doesn’t mean anything except that all men are lustful, and will look thus at any woman if the world says they can.”

“You are not a whore. I know that.”

“It does not matter what you believe, or even what is true. The world has decided, and so men do not hide their thoughts. But they are well aware of you, Genith, in a more respectful way. You are very beautiful, far more beautiful than me, and all who see you notice.”