Lilly shook her head. “No,” she insisted. “I will not forget you, my Lady. I could never?—”
The chamber door suddenly burst open. The sound cracked through their bodies like thunder, making them yelp.
Mossie’s head snapped up, its ears twitching toward the door, and Lilly stepped back sharply, her hand flying to her face.
Both women turned toward the intrusion.
Marian narrowed her eyes at the doorway, wiping them to better see whoever it was that had entered the room. She blinked, her heart pounding as she took in the man’s hulking figure and the way his chest rose and fell unevenly, as though he had come in haste.
Her face contorted into a frown.
How dare he?
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Lachlan’s jaw clenched as he stood outside the door to Marian’s bedchamber. His hand hovered in the air, his fingers curling into a fist that he could not quite bring himself to lower.
I have nay business here.
He had told himself twice as much as he made his way up the awfully steep stairwell and thrice by the time he reached the landing. But what had happened in the Great Hall still echoed in his mind, and Marian’s face had not ceased to haunt him.
He remembered the way her face had fallen when he asked her to leave and the way she had suddenly gone still.
He had wanted that. Since the first day she arrived, he had wanted nothing more than her hasty departure from his lands. But now that she was actually leaving, the thought of it made his chest feel like it was caving in.
This is madness.
He turned around, reaching halfway down the stairwell before he stopped again.
What if she truly leaves?
His chest tightened at the thought, and he ascended the stairs again, running up until he found himself outside her door once more.
This time, he did not bother to knock. He pushed the door open with a loudthud, the wood banging against the stone wall on the other side of it.
A muscle ticked in his jaw as the thud cracked through the room, and he stepped over the threshold, releasing a heavy breath. A part of him had expected to find the chamber empty, but the truest part of his heart had hoped she would still be here, waiting for him.
But that was not what he saw.
He remained by the door for a moment longer than he should. His gaze moved first to the open trunks on the bed. His eyes flitted over the gowns that were carefully arranged in stacks, the shoes, and the gloves folded neatly beside them.
The cat meowed beside one of the trunks, its wide eyes staring at him like he was an intruder in his own castle. Marian stood bythe window, the pale light falling over her confused face as if she were something fragile.
The room suddenly felt smaller.
Lachlan looked at her maid as she sniffed beside her, his eyes narrowing as he took in the devastation on her face.
What in God’s name had they been doin’?
He looked back at Marian, his gaze sweeping over her entire form. His eyes lingered on her hands and the way they hung limply at her sides, and when he met her gaze, he caught a mild sheen as she blinked.
Has she been cryin’?
His fists clenched as he took a few steps forward, and Marian tilted up her chin, blinking just once before her face set in a frown.
Lachlan’s chest tightened. He had not expected this.
He had expected her to be angry, defiant. But he had not expected that seeing her like this would make his heart thump so hard, as if he were the one who needed her and not the other way around.
