“Please go,” Isobel groaned.
“If it were only you who suffered, I might.” Catherine’s voice was sharp. “Have you no sense of what you are doing to Stephen? I fear he will not survive the first battle.”
Isobel sat up. “But he is a skilled fighter.”
Ridiculous as it was, her confidence in Stephen’s abilities was such it did not occur to her until now he might be killed.
“ ’Tis a dangerous thing,” Catherine said, “to send a man off to war when he does not care if he lives or dies.”
Isobel felt as though a fist squeezed her heart. “You do not truly think—”
“I do,” Catherine said.
“Then he must not go,” Isobel said, wriggling out from under the bedclothes.
When she tried to squeeze past, Catherine caught her arm and held it. “Stephen will not take you if you only wish to save him. He told me he tried to force your hand before, and he will not do it again.”
“Then you know he only wanted to wed me because he thought I might carry his child.”
Catherine blew out a long breath. “Of course, Stephen would do the honorable thing. But are you such an idiot you cannot see he loves you?”
Isobel shook her head violently from side to side, though she did believe Stephen loved her now.
“Stephen is such a good man, kindhearted and thoughtful,” Catherine said, her voice growing softer. “You could not ask for a better father for your children. ’Tis a rare man who is so good with little ones.”
Isobel’s heart ached, because all that Catherine said was true.
“I can see you love him, too,” Catherine said.
“Of course I love him! He could not make me so very wretched if I did not.” Isobel looked hard at Catherine, willing her to understand. “I promised myself I would never let another man have the power to hurt me as much as my father did.”
“It is too late for that.” Catherine brushed the hair back from Isobel’s face. “Come, tell me what it is you fear.”
“That he will fail me when I need him most,” Isobel blurted out. She drew in a shaky breath and then added in a whisper, “That he will abandon me, as both my parents did.”
“I see I shall have to tell you,” Catherine said, shaking her head, “though Stephen made me swear not to.”
Isobel leaned forward. “Tell me what?”
“You know Stephen has been spying for the king?”
Spying? Stephen spied for the king?
“The king is exceedingly grateful for the service,” Catherine said. “He offered the Hume lands to Stephen—and he wanted Stephen to take them.”
How naive she was! Hume Castle was a border castle; of course, the king would want a strong man to hold it.
“The king decided to throw you into the bargain, as men will do, when we told him Stephen wished to wed you.”
“The king chose Stephen for my husband?”
Catherine nodded. “But Stephen asked the king to free you from your promise and to give the Hume lands to you.”
“Why? Why would Stephen do this? He said he wants to marry me.”
“Because he wants your happiness more,” Catherine said, gripping Isobel’s arms. “Stephen wants you to choose him freely—or not at all.”
Stephen sacrificed his own gain, his own happiness, so that she might have hers.
