“I have spies,” Sir Guy said, “in a few places, mostly in the south. But Aymer, my brother, has spies amongst Bruce’s most trusted men.”
Margaret went still, immediately thinking of Atholl.
“You are pale,” he said softly. “Surely, you do not have something to hide?”
“No,” she managed to answer. And she said, not just because she wished to change the topic, “Isabella had no choice!”
“She had no choice but to crown Bruce—or to bed him? Please, do not tell me the mighty Bruce forced her to bed! The man has slept with half of the women in England. Soon, he will sleep with half the women in Scotland.”
She was silent, thinking frantically, wishing she hadn’t seen Isabella in Bruce’s bed—for then it would be so easy to dissemble. And if Sir Guy knew all of this, didn’t her uncle?
There would be no saving her marriage, she realized. But Isabella did not wish for it to be saved, anyway.
“And you, Lady Margaret?” he asked softly.
She flinched. “I beg your pardon?”
“What choices have you had?”
His gray stare was mesmerizing. “I do not comprehend you,” she tried, but she did. She knew exactly where he meant to go.
“You were at the coronation.”
“Yes.”
“And you had no choice but to attend?”
She felt her cheeks begin to warm. “I was curious. And I was there—at Scone Abbey....” She trailed off. Oh, God, what would he say and do, next?
“Yes, you were there.... When he came for Isabella at Balvenie, did MacDonald take you from your bed, as well?”
She wanted to glance away, but his stare was so relentless that she could not look aside. “I was asleep when they intruded.”
“I can only imagine,” he said, unsmiling. “You were asleep, and you awoke to what? A fight in the hall below?”
She stared into his expressionless gray eyes. “The fighting did not awaken me. I awoke...when he seized me.”
He made a harsh, amused sound. “Of course he seized you in your bed. How frightened you must have been.”
Her cheeks were on fire now. “I was not frightened, Sir Guy. I had already been his captive for almost a month. Had he wished to hurt me, he would have done so while I was a prisoner here.”
“You are such a clever woman,” he murmured. “And now you will tell me that he abducted you, as well?”
“No.” She shook her head, her heart thundering. “I was afraid for Isabella. I knew what they intended. I had overheard them discussing her here, at Castle Fyne, that single night Bruce was with us. She is so young, so reckless! I decided to go with them to attempt to keep her safe—to try to thwart their schemes to use her! But as you know, I failed. Isabella is headstrong.”
He studied her. Then he turned his relentless gaze away, finally. As he reached for his wine, Margaret almost collapsed.
But she knew this respite would be brief, she knew another attack was forthcoming.
He drank for a moment, then he glanced at her. “You went willingly with him.”
“Because of Isabella.”
“Yes, because of Isabella, because you are such a loyal friend—when you do not share a drop of blood.”
“She is married to my uncle. I advised her, again and again, of the fate of her marriage, should she help his worst enemy.”
“And did you advise her to stay out of Bruce’s bed?”
