Even with his face half bathed in the shadows cast by the firelight in the other room, she had the vague impression he had been watching her for some time. He wore the red-and-green plaid she’d seen on his family coat of arms. With a day’s growth of beard shadowing his jaw and his silver earing glinting in the light, he looked as disreputable as if he had been up all night plotting and planning murder and mayhem.
He folded his arms. “So you believe my household wishes to poison you.”
Freeing herself from his gaze, she tried to step around him only to find his arm blocking her path. “I believe I consider these quarters sacrosanct from your intrusion, my lord.”
A corner of his mouth lifted, but his eyes were as somber as night. “Little is sacrosanct at Stonehaven, especially what goes on in these chambers.”
Rose attempted to push past him, but it was like trying to move stone. “Move aside.”
“Or what?” he said, tilting her face into the light. “You haven’t the strength to swat a fly. Have you suddenly decided to surrender the fight? You shock me, love.”
“Surrender should make your task easier, should it not?”
He laughed. Hers was a silly remark and she winced at her melodrama, suddenly feeling like some overwrought heroine in the worst sort of book.
“I did not take you for being nonsensical, Rose. Wouldn’t killing you rather defeat our purpose for bringing you here?”
A knock sounded on the door. Without moving, he called, “Enter.”
The young girl who had helped plait Rose’s hair last night pushed a heavily laden trundle cart into the room.Roxburghe directed her to set the tray on the table nearest the hearth. The maid removed the silver domed lid covering the plate, revealing fruit and cheese and warm bread still steaming, then arranged two cups next to a silver carafe on the trundle cart. She lifted an inquiring gaze to her laird. With a subtle tip of his chin, he nodded and dismissed her.
After the maid left, Rose pressed her thumb to her temple and told his lordship to go away and leave her alone. “You are wasting your time.”
But he paid her no heed as he swung her into his arms. “I am not my servants, Rose.”
He carried her across the room to the table. She didn’t bother protesting as he set her in a chair and then made himself comfortable across from her. She narrowed her eyes. “You cannot force me to eat your food.”
He looked offended as he took up the fork and began eating. “Why would I force you to eat? What woman does not wish to have a smaller waist? Though I have seen you.All of you. And I think you look rather ... fine.”
It seemed incongruous to her that after everything he had put her through, here he was teasing her while she was half-dressed in her private chambers, and they should be bantering as if they were a married couple sharing intimacies and ways to murder the other.
“Not all poisons kill.” She dared him to contradict her, while pride convinced her not to stare at the food or lick her lips. “I’ve worked with herbs and know certain ones can inflict great agony without causing death.”
Visibly savoring a plump strawberry, he watched her watching him. “Then ’tis fortunate for you ... and probably for us, that our herbal has fallen into disrepair. If someone wanted to make you suffer, they would have to do so with garlic and onions.” He casually poured black ... somethinginto a porcelain cup. “We’ve an orangery in equal need of restoration if you’d care to see for yourself.”
“Are you saying I am free to walk about?”
She watched him tip back the cup and drink. His Adam’s apple bobbed with the flex of tendons on his neck as the warm liquid eased down his throat. Afterward, he dabbed the serviette at the corner of his mouth and gave her his full attention. She noted a small wet mark at the corner of his lip.
“I’m saying the incident with Julia was unfortunate, and for that, I apologize,” he said. “It will not happen again. Neither will last night.” He sat back in the chair. “Duncan departed this morning for Alnwick Castle to deliver new terms of trade to Hereford.”
“I see.” Now she understood Roxburghe’s purpose for coming to her chambers. Her chest tightened. “Then I will soon meet my father? And this entire ordeal will be at an end.”
“Aye, it will,” he agreed.
“How long before the meeting?”
“Alnwick Castle is five, maybe six days’ hard riding from Stonehaven. Two weeks perhaps before we hear,” he said. “Then we go to Jedburgh.”
Something in the tenor of his voice told her that no semblance of diplomacy remained between the two sides, and battle lines were about to be drawn. So be it.
“I have waited a long time,” she said. “No matter what happens in the next few weeks, I would have this done with. But what I do not know and what I would have you answer is what happens to me if my father will not recognize me as his daughter and refuses your terms? Will I be free to leave here?”
Roxburghe was sprawled back in his chair, the cup in his hand, his expression unreadable, but for an instant, shethought she had seen something. “A disavowal from him of your existence? We both know that will not happen.”
Damp tendrils of hair fell around her face and she tucked a strand behind her ear. “Until then, will you be testing all my food?”
He leaned forward. “Is that an open invitation to visit this room?”
