“I have behaved badly.” He wouldn’t meet her eyes. Worry clanged within her. “But I found yer charms to be irresistible.” Glancing up, he gave her a sheepish grin.
“Oh.” She stared at him, her heart throbbing madly.
So that must mean theyhadbeen intimate and now he had to confess his sins. She decided to go easy on him. “I know about Margaret MacDonald.”
His head snapped up, his eyes wide and round. “Ye do?”
“Evie told me.” Now was her chance. She had to tell him how she felt about him. “Jamie—”
“I shouldna have led ye to believe we had a future together, when I ken the lass was my betrothed.”
“Oh,” she said on a breath.
“I dinnae have a choice, though.”
Fire flashed through her. “You do have a choice. You don’t have tomarry her. Break off the betrothal.”
He looked at her as though she’d lost her mind. “I cannae.”
He didn’t offer an explanation and truthfully, she wasn’t owed one. The back of her throat burned hot with tears and threatened her eyes. She swallowed hard to keep them at bay.
“I understand.”
“If ye dinnae wish to ride out together—”
“I still do.”
Because she wanted to relish every last free moment she had with him while she still had the chance. Tomorrow, everything would change.
*
After he pickedup his things and departed, Brianna pushed herself out of the bed and dressed. She wasn’t all that good at it, but at least she got the woolen gown over her head. She pulled on woolen stockings and her shoes and then took a comb to the tangles in her hair. She wasn’t having much luck.
A knock sounded on the door. She called for them to come in. Roslyn poked her head in a moment later. When she saw what she was trying to do, she entered the room with a huff.
“Och, lass, ye’ll rip out all yer hair doing that. Let me.”
She took the comb from her hand and pointed to a nearby chair. She sat and waited while Roslyn took her time removing tangle after tangle, heaving heavy sighs all the while.
“Roslyn, do you know Margaret MacDonald?”
Her hand stopped moving for a moment. Then, she said, “Aye.”
“What do you think of her?”
She snorted. “A bit of a snob, if ye ask me. And ye did.”
Brianna smiled as the woman continued to pull knots from her hair. “I understandshe and Jamie—”
“Och, aye. I dinnae like it one bit. She’s no’ the lass for him. Even if she is bonnie.”
There was that hope again, blooming in her chest.
“Too high and mighty for our Jamie,” she continued. “He needs someone grounded, smart, and, o’ course bonnie, too. Someone who can calm him. He’s a bit of a rogue.”
She wanted laugh, but kept it in. “Sounds like you have someone in mind.”
Roslyn stopped combing and stood still behind her. The only sounds in the bedchamber were that of the crackling fire and Brianna’s breath. When the woman didn’t respond, she tipped her head back to look up at her.
