“I don’t know anything, really,” she started, and Griselda muttered beneath her breath. “But I vow to tell you all that I do know, my lord.”

“I’m waiting!” he shouted at her.

Words began to rush out of her. Unpracticed, jumbled, but truthful words. “My father bade me come. He said that there were rumors in London that you meant to bring in French troops—”

More snorting and muttering from Griselda.

“—and combine them with your men. He said you meant to put James Stuart on the throne.”

“Why would he say it? What would that give me?”

“Favor with a new king?” she answered uncertainly.

“Aye, and what then?” Jock prodded her, his voice gentler than Arran’s.

“He said that as he had brought you into the union of England and Scotland, and had vouched for you, and had given his daughter in marriage to you, that the suspicion of treason would likewise be cast on him, and that he would hang for it.”

“The coward sent his daughter to do his bloody deeds, is that it?” Arran spat.

“He said I was the only one who could discover it. That no one would suspect me, that I could discover what you were about, and that it was imperative I do so before anyone else.”

“And what did you discover, Margot?” Arran asked, his voice deadly soft. “What have you found that you will scurry back to tell your lord father, then?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. Just...” She swallowed. She could scarcely see him now, her vision blurred by tears she would not allow to fall. She couldn’t be that woman anymore. If she was going to salvage this, she had to be as strong as he was. “All I have discovered is that you trade with France in goods. Not arms or men.”

“Anything else?” he snapped.

Margot looked at the figurine on the floor. “Yes,” she said slowly, and looked up at him. “I discovered some letters you wrote.”

At the mention of the letters, Arran froze, his gaze so hard she thought it might cleave her in half. Now he approached her slowly, as if he were stalking her, intending to drive a spear through her and finish her off. “Do you mean to say, then, that you have opened my private mail?”

Margot couldn’t find her voice. She could only nod.