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Only when she stopped before the heavy, locked door at the bottom of the stairs, one hand already lifted to test the iron ring pull, did she remember this was the part of the castle she’d been expressly forbidden to enter. She let her hand fall, but not before she’d noticed the dark stain spreading across the stone above the lintel.

Water is finding its way down from somewhere far above.

Suddenly, Mrs. Holt appeared behind her.

“Your Grace.” Something careful had entered her voice, and all the easy warmth of their earlier mornings together was gone. “There’s nothing for you up there.”

“There’s clearly a leak.” Laura gestured toward the stain, keeping her voice light, though something in the housekeeper’s manner had already set her nerves on edge. “I wonder if we might have someone see to the roof before it spreads and ruins the stonework beneath it as well.”

“The tower is locked for a reason, Your Grace, and I’d ask you to leave it at that.” Mrs. Holt’s hands were twisted tight in her apron, her knuckles white. “It isn’t my place to say more. I’d not have you think me unkind for it. Please, Your Grace.”

“I don’t think you unkind. I only don’t understand what this is all about.” Laura glanced once more at the door, iron-banded and ancient-looking, unlike any other door she’d come upon in the castle. “Then whose place is it, if not yours?”

“His Grace’s.” The housekeeper’s eyes held hers, steady but unmistakably pleading. “Ask him, if you must ask anyone, but not me. Please, Your Grace, leave me out of it.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Holt. I will ask him.”

Laura found Nathaniel in his study, as she’d known she would, and shut the door behind her before she could lose her nerve.

“The west tower,” she said without preamble. “Mrs. Holt says it’s locked for a reason and that only you can tell me what that reason is.”

“I told you when you first arrived,” he reminded her sharply, not lifting his eyes from the papers before him. “You cannot go there. That rule has not changed.”

“I remember the rule. I am asking why it exists.”

“You are asking about something that is not your concern.”

“Not my concern?” Laura felt her temper flare. “I live in this castle, Nathaniel. I am your wife. Do you truly expect me to sit across from a man with your reputation, in a castle with a locked tower everyone is forbidden to enter, and act as though everything is perfectly ordinary? I deserve an answer.”

His eyes flashed, making her breath catch in her throat. “Are you afraid of me, Laura?”

“No,” she said without hesitation, meaning it. “But I am your wife, and I think that should entitle me to something more than silence. Do I not deserve the truth, whatever it is?”

“There are things about my family that are mine to carry, not yours. Can we leave it at that?”

“No. See, that is precisely the trouble.” Laura’s voice cracked, all the frustration of the past weeks rising at once. “You keep every door in this castle locked in one way or another, and you expect me to simply be grateful for the privilege of living behind them. I know you have saved me from a far worse fate, and I am grateful to you, but…”

“But what?”

“I am not a piece of furniture you’ve acquired for the sake of appearances, Nathaniel. I am not an ornament you bought at auction to sit prettily at your table and ask no questions. I am a part of this household.”

She saw something move behind his deep brown eyes before they shuttered.

“Laura—”

“No.” She was already moving toward the door, tears welling up in her eyes. “You needn’t explain yourself. I understand the terms well enough. It seems I forgot myself. Please forgive me.”

She let herself out before he could answer, without looking back.

CHAPTER 14

Over the next couple of days, the castle settled into a careful, unhappy quiet.

Laura took her meals in her room under the excuse of correspondence that didn’t exist. Nathaniel, she gathered from Mrs. Holt’s reports, had thrown himself into estate matters. They passed each other twice in the corridors and both times found excuses to look anywhere but at one another.

Iris finally broke the silence, cornering Laura in the small parlor while she read on the third morning.

“Good Morning, Laura,” she said brightly, walking up to her.