“Do they live?”
“As far as I know.”
A strange answer.
I studied her face. “Are they searching for you?”
She looked toward the trees. “Probably.”
“Then why do you not return?”
“I told you. I can’t.”
“Because the road is closed?”
A humorless little smile touched her mouth. “In a manner of speaking.”
“That is not an answer.”
“No.” She looked at me. “It isn’t.”
The hurt came before I could stop it. It was an absurd thing, and I despised myself for feeling it. Four days ago, I had not known she existed, and now I stood in the rain wanting the truth from a woman who owed me nothing.
“Is anyone hunting you?” I asked.
“No.”
“Did someone harm you?”
“No.” She narrowed her eyes at me
“Were you cast out from your village?”
“No.”
“Then why will you not tell me who you are?”
The silence stretched between us until I thought she might refuse me altogether.
“Because you wouldn’t believe me.”
“You have not given me the chance.”
She looked at me then, and what I saw in her face was fear. Not fear of me, that should have eased something inside me.
“What could be so strange?” I asked. “You have already told me of men and women who run into burning buildings, of carts that carry water and towers higher than churches. You speak like no woman I have known and appeared wearing garments I have never seen before.”
For one breath, I thought she might tell me as her lips parted, but then her gaze dropped to the center of her palm.
I had seen the mark there before, pale now but still visible, a perfect raised circle against her skin, almost like a brand.
Darcy closed her hand.
“I’m sorry, I can’t.”
Below us lay Ashford, every roof and field I had sworn to protect, while somewhere beyond the southern trees William of Normandy stretched his hand farther into England. I should have had room for nothing else.
Instead I knew Darcy disliked our cheese, enjoyed our ale, and had not yet learned to walk in her gown without muttering curses. I knew she touched her wrist when frightened and watched every doorway when she entered a room. She ate little unless someone placed food before her, slept less than she believed anyone noticed, and had an astonishing gift for irritating me precisely when I was closest to despair.
