“Ye intend to be a stubborn lass?”
“I intend to be an honest lass.”
The horses slowed at a rut, and the driver pushed them through. Emma let her shoulder rest fully against the cushion. She found she could breathe deeper here. Perhaps it was the fact that she had come to terms with her decision or that the road was much smoother here.
“Tell me one thing,” Olivia said. “If ye find a kindness in him ye didnae expect, will ye take it?”
“I will consider it,” Emma replied. “If it comes without a price.”
“There is always a price.”
“Then I will weigh it against me own.”
“And if the price is yer peace?”
“It willnae be,” Emma murmured. “He himself wants peace too much.”
“Ye speak as if ye ken his heart.”
“I ken what I have seen so far.”
“Right. In the three times ye have spoken with him.”
“Sometimes that is enough. I daenae have to like him to ken that he is a man who stands where fools might bow.”
“And a man some call a killer,” Olivia reminded her.
Emma’s jaw tightened. “And a man some call a savior. Both might be lies. I will make me own assessment.”
Olivia nodded. “Aye, that is the only one that counts.”
“All it takes, Ma, is five days.”
The castle grew even closer, and Emma watched the rain slide faster down the glass window.
“If ye ever fall in love—” Olivia began, gentler now, as if setting the idea down like a cup rather than hurling it like a stone.
“Maither,” Emma interrupted.
“Aye?”
“Daenae try to scare me with that.”
“I am nae trying to scare ye,” Olivia said. “I am trying to tell ye what happens to women who say never.”
“It willnae happen.”
“We cannae bank on yer words now, can we?”
Emma let out a slow breath and turned her head until their eyes met. “Listen to me. This is an arrangement. I plan to keep me word as long as he keeps his. I daenae ken how else to explain this to ye.”
“People change, Emma. Ye may see him as one thing today and then see him as something else entirely tomorrow,” Olivia reasoned, her voice as even as the road ahead of them.
“I daenae doubt that.”
“I am just afraid that ye might see him just a littletoodifferently. If ye ken what I mean.”
“It willnae happen.”
