Or so he thought. But the next night, after they’dfinallyretired to the private chamber that had been arranged for them (his mother had insisted on showing her every room of the beautifully decorated tower house), Margaret had a surprise for him.
“Your what?”
“Shhh,” she said. “Do you want the whole castle to hear? My flux. It will only be a few days.”
She thought he’d find the timing amusingly ironic, but apparently he didn’t. He was strangely quiet, his expression almost pained.
Her brow furrowed. “I don’t exactly have much control over these things, Eoin.” She grinned wickedly and slid up against him, covering him with her hand. “Besides, there is plenty ofprivacyhere, and no reason for you to be quiet.”
He jerked her hand away. “Damn it, Margaret. Stop it. You don’t understand.”
More than a little hurt by the rejection, she moved back a few steps to look at him. “Then why don’t you explain it to me,” she said softly.
A strange sense of doom settled around her like a thick gray mist.
He moved to the glazed window, staring out for a few minutes before turning to answer her.
“I’m leaving.”
For a moment she didn’t think she heard him correctly. Her heart was beating too loudly in her ears. “You are what?”
“There is something I have to do. I must leave by Saturday.”
Margaret just stared at him, dumbfounded. Saturday was in two days. “When will you be back?” she managed chokingly, a ball of hot emotion seeming to have stuck in her throat.
“I don’t know.”
She flinched as if struck. “What do you mean, ‘I don’t know’? A few days? Weeks?” He didn’t say anything. “Christmas?” she could barely breathe.
“I hope so.”
He hoped so? There were still almost two weeks until All Saints’ Day! Christmas was more than two months away. This wasn’t happening. Please let someone tell her this wasn’t happening. The room seemed to be swaying as if they were still on the ferry. “Where are you going?”
“I...” He dragged his fingers through his hair, the way he did when he was anxious or uncomfortable. “I can’t explain. It’s just something I have to do, all right?”
“Of course it’s not all right. How could it be all right? We have been married barely over a fortnight, have not yet shared a roof, let alone a bedchamber for the night, and you are leaving me in two days, telling me nothing about where you are going, what you are doing, and how long you will be gone, and it’s supposed to be ‘all right’?” Hearing the rising hysteria in her voice, she forced herself to try to calm. But how could she be calm? How could he do this to her? “How long have you known about this?”
He had the shame to look away. “Since the day before we left Stirling.”
Her chest stabbed. “And you didn’t think to tell me?”
“I intended to, damn it, just not like this.”
“Then when? After you’d made love to me, until I was too exhausted to argue?” She gasped, her eyes widening at his guilty expression. “Good God, that’s exactly what you intended, wasn’t it?”
“Ah hell, Maggie, I know I should have said something earlier. But I knew you’d be upset, and...”
She straightened her spine, her anger the only thing that kept her from collapsing into a ball and sobbing. “And you thought it would be easier this way.”
“Nay, that isn’t what I was going to say. You were so happy. I didn’t want to do anything to ruin that.”
“And you thought this would be better?” He didn’t say anything. She stared at him. “Please don’t do this. Don’t go.”
“I have to.”
“Then wait a few more days. At least give me that.”
“I can’t. I’m late already.”
