With a strangled cry I threw back the covers and leapt out of bed to catch hold of him and pull him back to face me. The raw hurt in his eyes made me curse myself inwardly. ‘Rushton! I thought you were a dream!’

‘I see what pleasure such a dream would give you,’ he said stonily.

‘Listen!’ I cried, not knowing whether to weep or laugh. ‘Last night … this morning when you arrived, you looked so coldly at me that I thought you must have stopped loving me because of what Ariel did to you. So when I woke just now and saw you smiling down at me, I … I thought you were one of my daydreams come to torment me!’

He looked thunderstruck.

‘Coldly?’ He barked the word with such indignant fury that, despite myself, I shrank from him. He drew a long breath and fought for control before saying through gritted teeth, ‘I was trying to control my desire to come striding across the room and ravish you!’

My mouth fell open. ‘But you looked furious!’

He gave a strangled laugh. ‘I was furious! At myself for being unable to control how I felt. I am a man grown and the master of Obernewtyn. I am not a green boy! I have … responsibilities.’ The last word was spoken through clenched teeth. Then he gave a harsh laugh and added, ‘And apart from that, I did not think you would want me to make love to you with half of Obernewtyn watching!’

I felt my cheeks grow hot, but something hard and painful that had lodged in my chest was beginning to melt. ‘I thought you had found that you could not love me after all,’ I said softly.

He gave a hoarse laugh and reached out to stroke my cheek with the back of his fingers. Involuntarily I shivered and his gaze swept down over my thin nightdress and bare feet. With a muttered curse, he brought my slippers and a warm shawl and led me to the fire. I put them on and sat down, dumb with relief.

Rushton knelt to stoke the fire to life, and once it was done, he turned and looked up into my eyes. ‘Elspeth, how could you possibly believe that I would stop loving you?’ he asked gently. ‘I have loved you since I first set eyes on you and I will go on loving you until the breath goes out of me.’