“Margot—how will you go?” he asked. “Think of what you’re saying.”

“I’ll ride,” she said, and pushed his hand from her head so she could sit up.

Knox snorted at that. “You can’t ride—”

“Yes, I can! I have learned to ride at Balhaire.”

Knox chuckled. Margot roared with despair and frustration as she shot up from her seat and shoved against his chest with all her might. “I’m going, Knox! I am going to find a way to free him! This is all so very wrong and it’s my fault. You can help me, or you can wallow in your bed!” She tried to push past him, but Knox caught her arms.

“All right, all right, darling. Calm down—”

“Don’t tell me to calm down!”

“Margot!” he said loudly, taking her hands in his and pushing them down. “But let us speak rationally. You don’t know Fonteneau as it is today. The old man is doddering and decrepit and keeps to his bed, and Putnam has given his life up to drink and debt.”

“He likes to game,” Margot said. “Take me to Fonteneau. I can occupy Putnam while you free Arran.”

“That’s madness,” Knox said. “Do you know what will happen if you are caught trying to free an accused traitor?”

“No, I don’t. I don’t want to know. Can you not understand, Knox? I am his only hope. Do you see? I am his only hope.” And there they were. The tears she’d been fighting for days began to fall, silently streaming down her cheeks. She bowed her head, ashamed of them.

“Good God. Margot...do you love him?” Knox asked, his voice full of surprise.

She did, didn’t she? She loved him. She nodded, swiped her fingers beneath her eyes. “I suppose that I do.”

“Bloody hell.” Knox sighed and gathered her in his embrace, resting his chin on the top of her head. “Then I suppose we must go, mustn’t we?”

Margot lifted her head. “You’ll help me?”

“I’ll help you. Against my better judgment, I’ll help you, love. Now listen to me and take heed—be ready to ride at two o’clock. Bribe one of the grooms there if you must, and tell everyone far and near that you mean to call on your friend Lynetta Beauly in my company. Then slip out of Norwood Park like a wraith so that no one can say precisely when you left to call on her. Can you do that?”

She nodded.

Knox caught her chin, forcing her to look at him. “Margot—can you do that? Because if you can’t, and we are caught, that will be the end of it. Of you and your Scot.”