Alex looked up at her, almost surprised that she had asked in the first place.
She lifted a hand at once. “Ye daenae have to answer that.”
A short laugh left him, but it was not bitter. It was the kind of laugh that said he had resigned himself to his fate. “Something tells me ye will find out one way or another.”
She shrugged. “I have a curious mind.”
He exhaled and leaned his hip against the table. “Somehow, I daenae doubt that.”
“So,” Erica pressed, her voice gentle. “What happened?”
He watched the window for a beat, then turned back to her. “We got married a year before I went to war,” he said. “Isabella was gentle then. Quiet. The kind that made a house feel easy. I came home, and the twins followed soon after. For a while, everything seemed fine.”
Erica fidgeted, unsure if speaking would make him retreat into his shell or if being silent would encourage him to speak more. She continued to listen anyway, watching sorrow flicker across his face once in a while.
His jaw set, and he did not look away. “Ye see, she wasnae well.”
Erica stayed still. The door behind her stayed locked. The line of light on the floor had crept toward his boot.
“At first, it was small,” he said. “Forgetting names she had said the night before. Laughing at the wrong moments. Mood swings. Accusations that had nay root. I thought it was only the strain. Childbirth takes more than folks say. Grief for the moment she had lost. I told meself it would get better if we were kind and patient.”
“But it didnae?” she asked, her voice soft.
His lips thinned. “Nay. It grew even sharper. Isabella would scream at the maids for breathing wrong. She would throw stones at the guards from the window and try to make them play agame. Once, she stripped a footman in the yard and laughed while he fled. Servants began to leave, and the castle learned to brace itself.”
Erica swallowed. She sat down and tried to lean back against her chair. She didn’t move too much because she didn’t want to risk upsetting this moment of vulnerability. So she remained as still as she could.
Alex rubbed his thumb along the edge of the table. “I was patient, ye see. Always patient. I let her roam where I could keep an eye on her. I took the blows when she struck me. I told meself she was ill, and illness deserved mercy.” He lifted his hand and gestured to the blind side of his face. “What I didnae ken was that she was being deliberate.”
Erica’s fingers curled into her skirt. The room held its breath.
“Deliberate,” she said quietly.
“Aye,” he said. “One night, she came to the study. She meant to provoke me. She wanted anger from me. I wouldnae give it. She had a knife. I thought she would never use it.” He tapped his scarred brow with two fingers, then let his hand fall.“She did.”
Erica felt a breath escape her. She watched as Alex took another breath and squared his shoulders.
“Calum burst in before she could strike again. As he was trying to restrain her, she lost her footing and fell from the window.” He looked at the grain of the wood as if it could answer for him. “It ended there.”
Erica did not interrupt. They both found the chairs and sat opposite each other. The list of what she could say lined up in her head and stayed there. When she nodded, it was slow and careful.
“I see,” she said.
“I have Calum to thank,” he said, softer. “Still, it shouldnae have ended that way.”
She weighed the next question before letting it go. “What was she angry about that night?”
Alex froze. The color left his face, as if someone had opened a door to winter. His gaze flicked past her shoulder, then back. A beat held.
Before he could answer, a folded paper slipped from the waist of Erica’s dress and fell at his feet. It landed with a sigh too loud for the quiet.
He pointed at it. “What is that?”
Erica closed her eyes for a brief second. Escape ran through her mind and had nowhere to go. “Might as well tell ye,” she said.
She bent, picked the letter up, and held it out to him.
“From Laird MacGee,” she said. “He sent me a letter to update me on the search for me faither and braither. Nothing too serious, or else I would have brought it to ye the minute I finished reading it.”
