‘Rowenna?’
‘My sister. She was allowed to go to the market and ride around the countryside, but I was kept at home to tend my father.’
‘Does your father ail?’
‘Only from laziness and drink. He said I needed sheltering from the ills of the world as I was so precious. I mistook his words for love, but now I think it was just greed.’
‘How so?’
‘He hoped I would make a good marriage to repair our fortunes.’
‘I see. And is that what you were doing with Edmund?’
‘I do not want to talk about him. I would rather forget he ever existed,’ she said, and there was a stubborn tilt to her chin. Cecily pulled the jacket tighter around her.
‘Well, I need answers, and you will tell me, lass. Come on.’
She sighed. ‘Very well. I was walking one day. I did that often to escape from my tiresome family.’ Cecily swallowed hard. ‘Oh, but I miss them now.’
‘Go on.’
‘I met Edmund on Crichton Moor. He was just there one day, and at first, I was afraid. But he was so charming, well-spoken.’
‘And handsome,’ said Peyton, as a worm of jealousy uncoiled in his gut.
She looked at him angrily. ‘Aye, handsome, beautiful even.’
‘I thought that beauty was a woman’s preserve.’
Peyton Strachan’s tone was almost gentle, and Cecily needed to unburden herself of her anger and disappointment and make him understand why she had shamed herself.
‘There was no other word for him. He was perfect in every way, save for that little scar on his temple, which made him seem so heroic. The result of a fight, he said, but he was probably lying.’ She gave a bitter little laugh. ‘To think I was shocked that he wanted to be with me. I used to pinch myself in case I was dreaming. Edmund was not like other men. He talked of educated matters – politics, the King’s court, his travels in England and beyond, and he talked of love and a future together.’
‘Is this the future you hoped for, lass?’
‘Of course not,’ she said. ‘But Edmund was kind and talked to me like an equal. He swore he loved me to distraction and that I was the most beautiful creature he had ever beheld.’
Peyton frowned, and she could almost taste his disapproval. ‘So you fell for his flattery and pretty face,’ he said.
She shrugged. ‘Why should I not? Do you know what it was like for me at Fallstairs? I was so suffocated by my dreary existence that with every dull day that passed, I could almost feel all my youth seeping away as if Fallstairs was leaching it from my very bones. When Edmund said we should run away together, I agreed. Better to take a chance on him than have all my gifts wasted on withered Wymon Carruthers or that brute Jasper Glendenning.’
Peyton just stared out over the water with an angry look on his face. He was as changeable as the wind and clearly thought her a fool.
‘You think ill of me for falling for Edmund, don’t you?’ she said.
‘Not my place to say.’
How could she make this brute understand love? ‘It was as if Edmund held a bright, shining future in his hand, full of love and happiness. Can you blame me for grabbing onto it?’
Peyton took hold of her arm. ‘Is this love?’ he said, pulling up her sleeve to reveal a purple bruise, yellowing at the edges.
She snatched her arm away.
‘Did you not question why he was riding around the West March, alone, if he was a merchant’s son?’
‘Why would he not?’
‘Because he is English, and the Marches are dangerous for travellers. Don’t you know anything?’
