But she felt entirely useless to Arran and began to forage for food, picking brambles and gooseberries and holding them in the tail of her shirt. She dug around the old garden for leeks and potatoes, not giving up until she found a few. Granted, the potatoes were rock-hard and the leeks spindly. But she found them. She took their clothes down to the river to wash as she’d seen women doing on the way to the village at Norwood Park. But she was too earnest in her attempts and rubbed a hole in her gown. Neither did she hang the clothes properly to dry, so they were misshapen.

Arran, bless him, said not a word.

They did not talk about the past or future in those days. They were too engaged with the business of surviving to address old wounds. They talked about silly things when they came together for meals. Margot liked to tease him, to see the change of color beneath his beard. She told him he was shy in the presence of Lynetta Beauly, to which he took great exception.

“That is no’ so. Miss Beauly canna stop talking long enough to draw a breath.”

“That is true. But she is quite comely.”

Arran snorted and turned away. And he did not deny it.

He laughed so hard when she cut up potatoes to boil them that tears of laughter rolled down his cheeks. “There is no’ a thing any simpler than this, aye? You put the bloody potato in the pot, leannan.”

“How was I to know?” she demanded. “Potatoes are generally served to me in pieces.”

After a fortnight, the most impossible thing happened—Margot was at ease with the many things she had to do each day. She swept floors and boiled the single cloth they shared for washing. Arran chopped wood and she helped him pile it high near the door, laughing about the siege he was apparently expecting.

Their existence was quite companionable, and when the day was done, and their muscles ached and they could scarcely keep their eyes open, they fell into each other’s arms.

Their nights were filled with lovemaking, sometimes so tender that Margot wanted to weep, and sometimes so lusty that they rolled onto their backs laughing when it was done.

They filled each other’s bodies and thoughts and senses in every way, as if they were the last two people on earth.