“How can I believe it?” he asked. “You ask the impossible, Margot. You might have told me straightaway, aye? You might have given me the chance to help you. But what you did has made it far worse.”

“I wanted to tell you,” she said earnestly. “But I couldn’t imagine you would admit the truth if you were...that is, if you...” She shrugged and looked down, unable to say it aloud yet.

He paused and looked to the ceiling, trying to calm his thickening anger. “Did you think I would lie to you?” he asked, his voice low with fury. “Have I ever lied to you? Have I dissembled in any way, then?”

She shook her head. She was fighting tears. Always the bloody tears!

“If you had asked me, instead of skulking around as you did, I would have told you the truth, Margot. No matter what the truth is, aye? I would have told you the truth because I vowed,” he said, clapping his hand to his heart, “to honor you above all others. I gave you no reason to distrust that vow.”

“No. You’re right, of course you’re right,” she said, nodding, swallowing down her unshed tears. “But on my life, I didn’t know what else to do.”

“So you opened my private letters,” he said sharply.

She tried to speak again, but with a shake of his head he turned away from her. “Save your breath.” He was bone-weary now, and he didn’t care to hear her excuses. He stalked across the room and sat on the edge of his bed to remove his boots. “We’ll leave in two days,” he said.

“For England?”

“Aye, for England. I’ve no choice.” It was his only hope. To remain here and do nothing was to invite a raid. “We’ll sail for Heysham and ride from there. A chaise will take too long. Griselda will teach you to ride astride. Do as she says, aye?”

Margot wisely did not argue; she pressed her lips together and nodded.

Arran turned back to the task of removing his boots. He felt her weight on the bed, felt her moving toward him, felt her hands on his shoulder. She began to knead the knots away. He tried to shrug free of her touch, but she would not allow it.

“I’ll do whatever you ask me to do, Arran. I swear to you.”

“Then take yourself from my sight. That is what I ask.”

“Oh God,” she said behind him. “Please don’t—”

He jerked around, forcing her hands off him. “What did you possibly think would come of your betrayal, Margot?”

She was on her knees in the middle of his bed, the wrap slipping from her shoulders. “I’m so very sorry, Arran. For everything. For leaving you. For—”

“Why did you read them?” he suddenly roared, his frustration with her exploding around them.