“I came to tell ye the truth,” he rasped. “Then ye may choose what ye like.” He held the object out.
She did not take it. “What is that?”
“Take it and see.”
“Have ye lost yer mind? Do ye think some trinket will fix this?”
His arm did not lower. “Take it, Ava.”
She hated that his voice still worked on her. She hated it even more that she crossed the room and snatched the thing from his hand.
The cloth came away under her fingers. Beneath it lay a star map, carefully made, marked in fine detail, the paper good and the edges protected for travel.
She stared at it.
For one second, she could not speak. Then the hurt came back twice as hard because the thing was beautiful and because she wanted it and because wanting anything from him felt like walking straight into another wound.
“So this is yer grand plan?” she asked, lifting her eyes to him. “Ye think a map of stars will make me forgive how badly ye wanted me gone?”
Pain crossed his face. He took it without flinching. “I bought it before.”
“Before what?”
“Before the cliff. Before ye left.”
The room went very quiet.
Ava looked back down at the map, trying desperately to ignore the way her fingers tightened around its edges. He had bought it before everything.
For some reason, that truth moved under her anger and made it less stable.
She hated that too.
“When?” she asked.
“The day I went to the market.”
The answer landed with awful force.
He had listened then. He had remembered. He had gone and bought this for her while she still lived in his castle and his silence.
She set the map on the table because her hands had begun to shake. “Ye are making a poor impression so far, me Laird.”
A small breath left him. It might have been close to laughter if there had been any ease between them to carry it.
“I ken.”
He took one step closer. Slow enough that she could have told him to stop. She did not. She should have, but she did not.
“I have always loved ye,” he admitted.
The words hit her harder than any apology had.
“I wanted ye from the start. I cared for ye from the start. I listened when ye spoke and bought a foolish map and watched ye fill rooms and thought of ye when I should have been thinking of anything else. Ye are so…” He paused for a moment, his jawtight. “Ye are so perfect that I couldnae help but fall in love with ye.”
Ava’s eyes burned.
He was speaking plainly, at last. Too late, perhaps, but plainly.
