“I know…at least, I think I know it.”
He growled. “I would never dishonor ye. No’ with her or with any other lady.”
She merely nodded.
Bollocks.
Would she never grow to trust him?
“Do you think you can make a hardened soldier out of me in the hour we have until our supper reservation?” she asked, casting him an imploring look that seemed to beg for his patience.
“It’ll take more than one hour to toughen ye up. I would no’ do it even if we had all the time in the world.”
“Why not?”
“Ye are already fierce, but in a good way. Why would I train ye to become hard as nails, like that she-cat? No, ye already know how to stand up for what’s right. But I also like this soft and vulnerable side to ye, this side that finds pleasure in books such asStitching with Wool.”
She gave a gentle laugh and shook her head. “I like to knit.”
“I know that ye do. And I like that ye do. Need I repeat myself? Ye already have fire within ye, but perhaps ye are sometimes afraid to light it. Lady Trowbridge is successful in spreading her malice because she understands yer weakness and aims straight for it. This is why she wasted no time in striking at yer heart.”
“My heart?”
“Aye, that is what I represent. She thinks we are about to become betrothed, and she hopes to wreck our plans by coming between us, just as she purposely wrecked your marriage all those years ago.”
“But it is Gwenys and Douglas who are the lovebirds, not us.”
He sighed. “Ye are the only one who refuses to see the possibility of love between us. Do ye think Gwenys’s stepmother failed to notice the way I looked at ye when we first encountered her? Was I no’ obvious?”
“Perhaps you were, but I was too busy worrying about Gwenys to notice.” She glanced up at him and her eyes suddenly widened. “Do you think they will try to hurt Gwenys? Oh, dear heaven.”
Her resolve hardened before his very eyes. But this was Miranda, a tigress when fighting for those she loved.
If only she loved herself as much.
“I’ll come after them with a holy vengeance and burn them to ashes if they dare make her cry,” she declared.
“Aye, there’s the fiery lass I first met. See, ye already have this fierceness in ye. So, why are ye strong for everyone else? Ye need to apply a little of that strength to yerself.”
“It is different for me.”
“Only because ye let it be different. Ye stood yer ground with Mongo. Why are ye letting those biddies get to ye? Who are they other than a couple of conniving hags that ye bested in the courts? Ye won that battle. Ye are the victor, so why are ye behaving as though ye were the conquered one and no’ the conqueror?”
She was once again looking at him and giving him that soft smile that broke his heart to pieces every time.
“I’ll protect ye, of course,” he said, sighing. “But ye have to stop thinking of yerself as that twenty-year-old girl who endured their humiliation. They are masters at this game and will savage ye the moment I am no’ around, but only if they still sense yer weakness.”
“This is exactly the reason I wanted to have supper in the dining hall tonight. I refuse to hide from them.”
“Merely coming out of hiding is no’ going to do it. Ye need to be a warrior, fierce as ye were when hurling those objects at Mongo and his companions.”
“All right. I think I can do this. No weakness,” she repeated with a determined nod.
He tucked a finger under her chin. “There’s my lass. Ye’ll show them nothing less than the warrior queen in ye. Agreed?”
“Agreed.” She arched an eyebrow and smiled at him again. “You had better put on some clothes before another of the inn’s guests comes down the hall and sees you in your Roman god glory.”
He glanced down at himself and laughed. “Aye, I’ll put on some clothes for ye.”
