She nodded, and the emotion swimming in her big greenish-blue eyes made his chest squeeze.
It seemed to take an interminable amount of time to fetch his belongings, change his clothes, and locate his horse, which he’d given a coin to a lad to watch. But eventually, he and Mary rode in silence back to the castle, her safely seated before him. When he thought about how close she’d come to falling…
What the hell was she doing there? And why was she with Felton? The questions kept pounding through his head on the ride back to the castle.
Not surprisingly, there wasn’t a guard to greet them as they rode through the gate. Felton prized his place as champion too much to risk losing it when he couldn’t be certain of the outcome. But Kenneth knew like a cornered dog that Felton would be looking and waiting for his chance to strike back.
Despite his victory, Kenneth did not delude himself; by losing his temper, he’d given Felton an axe to hang over his head.
But it was the questions about Mary’s role that ate at him. By the time they reached the solitude of their chamber, he was fighting an ugly bout of jealousy and suspicion.
The door had barely closed behind them when he took her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. His heart clenched to see her tear-ravaged face, but he steeled himself. “Why, Mary? Why were you in town with him?”
She drew back in shock. “You can’t be accusing me of something?”
His mouth fell in a hard line, the muscle below his jaw ticking. “Do I not have a right to be suspicious when I find my wife with another man in the middle of a damned melee, where she could have fallen to her death? Were you following me, or is there another reason you and Felton traveled to town together?”
The spark returned to her eye. “Yoursuspicions? What of mine? You knew what I thought you were doing every night in town. But you let me believe you were with other women, when instead you were fighting in an illegal tourney that could get you killed or imprisoned.”
His eyes burned into hers. “I thought you didn’t care.”
She pursed her mouth. “Well, I do. I care very much, and I’m afraid you are going to have to accept that.”
He was so surprised by her admission that it took him a moment to reply. What did she mean? He was slightly dumfounded. “You do?”
She nodded. “I wasn’t following you, and it is your fault I was with Sir John in the first place.”
“My fault? I believe my instructions were for you never to leave the castle without my permission.”
She gave him a look that told him just how seriously she’d taken that particular order. “I assumed you didn’t mean that, of course. You spoke in anger.”
He’d meant every bloody word of it. If he had his way, he’d lock her in a high tower on some remote western isle until this war was over.
But he listened as she explained how she’d received a note from the monk about the nun who had looked like her. She’d come to him to accompany her, but when he turned her down, she’d accepted Sir John’s offer instead.
Ah hell. He hadn’t realized. Guilt pricked him. For the first time, she’d come to him for help, and he’d turned her away.
“On the way back,” she continued, “we heard the commotion, and Sir John decided to investigate.”
“He should never have taken you with him.” When he thought of what could have happened to her—what had almost happened—that sick, helpless feeling knifed through him again. “My God, you could have been killed!”
She studied his face as if trying to discern the sentiment behind the words. “It was an accident. In my effort to leave before Sir John recognized you, I stumbled. I know you might not like to hear it, but Sir John did me a service.”
She was right on both counts. He gritted his teeth. “I may have overreacted—”
“May have?”
Kenneth continued as if she hadn’t interrupted. “But don’t tell me he didn’t take advantage of the situation. He was holding you too damned long. He looked like he was going to kiss you.”
The fact that she looked like she was fighting a smile didn’t help his rationality any. “I think he was shocked more than anything.” She put her hand on her stomach, smoothing the fabric over the swell. His chest swelled, seeing how much she’d changed in the past month. “He realized I was with child.”
Kenneth felt the urge to smile himself. “Good. Maybe that will make him see that you aren’t going to change your mind.”
Their eyes held. “There was never a danger of that.” Before he could ponder what she meant, she added, “Why were you there, Kenneth? Why are you fighting like a common ruffian in an illegal combat tourney and not in the yard with the other knights?”
“It’s as I told Felton, I’ve been trying to build my strength back up in preparation for giving him the challenge that he’s been clamoring for.”
It was a poor excuse, and he could see that she didn’t fully believe him, but what else could he say? His mission wasn’t over. He couldn’t tell her the truth. Not until she was safely in Scotland. He couldn’t risk it. Not when he’d begun to realize just how much of a betrayal this was going to seem to her.
