Joan looked up at her, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I mean us—the betrothal.”

Any chance she’d had at happiness. When that had become something she wanted she didn’t know, but it had.

Alice looked shocked—but something else as well. Her paleness had turned ashen—almost as if she were ill. “It can’t be over,” she said. “Why? What happened?”

Joan didn’t understand her cousin’s earnestness but was too upset to think about it. “We had an argument.”

“But that can’t be the end. He was so fierce in his defense of you—he cares for you deeply.”

“I betrayed him horribly.”

Strangely, her cousin didn’t seem curious about the nature of her betrayal. “Surely there is something you can do? You have to go.”

“Go?”

“After him,” Alice explained anxiously. She seemed so jittery, and her hands were flying all over the place. “Explain everything. I’m sure he’ll forgive you. You should go as soon as possible—immediately.”

Joan managed a tremulous smile, appreciating her cousin’s urgency on her behalf. “He’s going to Wark, Alice, to march off to war. He’s angry enough. He’d be furious if I showed up in camp.”

“But don’t you see? You have to go now. Otherwise it could be too late. What if . . .” She thought for a moment. “What if something happens to him? You can’t let him march off to war with it like this between you. Do you want his last thoughts of you to be in anger or in love?”

Joan looked at her in horror and wrapped her arms around her stomach. “Oh God.”

“I don’t mean to cause you more distress, cousin, but you must think of all possibilities. I don’t want you to regret not doing something. Go to him. Say whatever you need to convince him to take you back—to take you away from here. Just go now.”

Alice had almost convinced her that it was worth the try. Joan loved him. Could she just let him go without a fight?

Since the day her father had dragged her to see her mother hanging in that hideous cage, Joan had dedicated her life to one thing: doing whatever it took to help Bruce’s cause. Could she do anything less for her own?

She was going to fight for Alex. Even if she had to pound it into that thick male head of his, she wasn’t going to give up. Alex belonged with Bruce—and with her.

“I will help you,” Alice volunteered. She started toward Joan’s chamber.

Joan startled from her thoughts. Alice, help me? Suddenly she was taking notice of her cousin’s strange behavior. Why was Alice so anxious for her to leave? It was almost as if . . .

She knew something.