Turning, he stirred the lentils in the pot and retook his seat.
Isolde looked from the fire, to his long legs stretched toward the hearth, and then back to the fire again.
Perhaps she should have had him refill her whisky mug after all.
“Why . . .” She paused to lick her lips before continuing, “Why have ye decided tae be more . . .” She searched for the right word. “. . . amiable?”
Nothing.
And then, his voice low—
“You were underwater for so long, I feared that you had . . .” He trailed off.
They were both talking in ellipses, it seemed.
“I couldn’t find you, and I realized . . .” He took a deep breath. “It made me reexamine my priorities. What I truly want from my life.” A lengthy pause. “From our marriage.”
Our marriage.
So . . . not merelyenthusiasmandwilling participationthen?
Aye, she was going to need more whisky for this conversation.
“And what is it ye wish of our marriage?” she asked.
Another long stretch of silence.
“I must . . .” He swallowed, the sound audible. “I must apologize for my prior conduct. My behavior since our marriage has been . . . unacceptable, for which I am most sorry. I have resolved to do better. Tobebetter.”
Isolde blinked in astonishment.
Before this moment, she would have considered the phrases, ‘I amsorry’ and ‘I have resolved to do better’ to be absent from his ducal vocabulary.
“How hard, precisely, did ye hit your head when the dinghydookedus into the waves?”
He chuckled, the rich sound adding to the whisky-warmth in her veins. “Not hard enough, I fear.”
“I am sorry, too, for the cruel things I have said.” She stood and poured another finger of much-needed whisky into her mug.
“You were merely responding to my recalcitrance.”
She tilted the bottle toward him, an unspoken question in her eyes. He nodded and lifted his mug.
“Nae, I will not permit ye tae take all the blame on yourself.” She finished pouring his drink and set the bottle on the floor beside him. “As my mother always says, it takes two to quarrel.”
“No, that simply is not the case here, Iso—”
He broke off as she leaned forward and placed her pointer finger over his lips.
“Hush,” she smiled. “Let us not argue about this, too.”
At which point, she realized he had gone preternaturally still.
Both their eyes dropped to her finger on his surprisingly-soft lips.
Oh.
What had she been thinking?
