Her heart quickened.
“Ye do not agree? What would ye have us do?”
She hadn’t realized she was so easy to read. She would need to work on that, but she did appreciate him seeking her input. “I know ye have duties to see to.”
“That is true. No doubt, I have been missed.”
She snorted. “And they’ll assume ye are with some woman.”
“Ah, they will not know I am with my betrothed!”
“But I am not under yer protection as of yet.”
His hand stilled where it had been caressing her arm. “Ye have always been under my protection. Diarmuid expects it.”
“I mean… if Pádraig comes back.”
Marcán sat up to look at her, his heart hammering in his chest, but this time it was not from desire. “What is it he did to ye? I will see ye avenged.”
“I did not heed ye, Marcán.”
Marcán could not agree more, but when he took her into his arms, she shuddered. “What has he done to ye,grádh,that ye tremble at the memory?”
The longer it took her to gather the courage to tell him, the more his trepidation grew. The harder it became to take a breath.
“He… he demanded I give him release, and he was angry when I refused.”
His chest tightened with rage, but he continued to hold her, wanting her to finish her tale.
“I was sore afraid he would rape me. He… he said I was nothing but a tease.”
She paused, still trembling in his arms. He stroked her hair.
“’Tis what a man says to put questions in a lass’s mind when she tells him no,” he said.
When she sat back, she averted her gaze.
“Pádraig assured me we would speak to Diarmuid about our joining—”
“What?” Marcán fought the urge to jump to his feet, to demand explanations. Instead, he sat perfectly still. “What joining?”
“I thought… I thought our clans joining, his and ours. I thought it would be agreeable. I… I wanted so badly to be married…”
Marcán remained silent, but he was unable to keep the anger from his expression. When she glanced at him, she immediately looked away.
“That was why I wanted to speak to him. When ye… interrupted us—”
“No, Astrid, I did not interrupt ye speaking to the man. I interrupted yer being raped by the four of them.” Marcán blew a breath, hoping to calm his frustration at her innocence. Even now, her wide-eyed expression showed her lack of understanding. “Ye could have spoken to him in the visiting hall, where everyone could see ye.”
“I know that now. I should have heeded yer warning.” Her small voice spoke of her shame. “I did not believe he would behave so badly, that he would not listen to me, but he didn’t hear anything I said. He just wanted to…”
“Have at ye.” Marcán met her gaze when she finally looked at him again. “That was what the man wanted from ye.”
“I know that now.” She repeated herself in the same quiet voice. “And when he told me we would need to speak to Diarmuid to make plans, I realized he still intended…”
“To take ye!” Marcán struggled against the chords of betrayal her words struck in him. He had loved her for so very long, but she hadn’t known. He must remember that. She was not betraying him or his love. “Did ye really want to marry such a man as that?”
Her inability to even voice the words reminded him again that she was innocent.
