But Margot suddenly lunged for him. It startled Arran, and he surged forward, catching her before she fell between the two horses and was crushed. He caught her under the arm and hauled her up, but the horses began to shift and move, and he had to drag her onto his horse to keep her from falling. “Diah, what are you thinking?” he demanded roughly. “You might have been trampled!”

Margot made a sound of despair and threw her arms around his neck. “Was last night just a dream? Will you really send me away when I’ve bared my heart to you?”

He tried to dislodge her arms from his neck. “You bared your body, no’ your wretched heart.”

“Let me prove it to you,” she said quickly, and turned her head to kiss his cheek. “Please, Arran—I’ll prove it to you.”

“Prove what?” he asked with great exasperation as she kissed the skin of his neck just above his collar, sending a white-hot shock through him.

“That I’ve come back to repair our broken marriage. To begin again! We can start anew, we can, because I’ve changed. I swear to you that I have.” She kissed his cheek again. And his jaw. And his ear.

“Donna kiss me again,” he said sharply. He was already distracted, already losing his ability to focus on the words she was saying, and managed to push her back so that she could not kiss him. “Why should I believe you’ve changed? On what grounds? For what reason?” He roughly cupped her face. “Why in God’s name would I believe a word you utter, then? You made a bloody fool of me, Margot. You rejected my clan. You despised my professions and my occupations. You complained there was no society for you here. But this is where I live. I am the laird here. I do as a laird does, and I always will. That will never change, and neither will you. I donna trust you, aye? I will never trust you.”

She paled. Her arms slid from his neck. “I know you don’t trust me,” she admitted dolefully. “How could you? But I’m not the girl I was then. I want to show you I’ve changed.”

He snorted.

“And I want a child.”

The moment she said those words aloud, she looked as if she wanted to gulp them back. Arran’s gaze narrowed skeptically on her. “You would use that to persuade me?” he asked scornfully. She knew his desire to have a child; she knew it very well. She knew his disappointment each month when her courses came. And he knew her happiness that they had.