Her face lifted higher and wet lashes blinked up at him. Why didn’t she speak? How much better it would have been if she had been throwing things through the window or stomping back and forth or screaming at every person who penetrated her sphere.
He entered and glanced at the untouched plate sitting next to her. “You had better eat that, Miss Gillingham, lest I force you.”
“I shall never eat and you cannot make me.”
“Can’t I, though?”
More tears. How young she looked, how desperate, like a frightened bird in a gilded cage. Were the consequences not so grave, he would have unlocked the cage, set her free, and let her fly back to that forsaken forest she seemed to love.
“Why am I here?”
The question again. The one he’d waited a lifetime to ask but couldn’t seem to get past his lips. How to say such a thing anyway?
He knelt in front of her on the floor. “Lord Gillingham has been to see you?”
She shook her head no.
“He is as frightened as you are. Surely you must see that.”
“I see many things, but I understand none of it.”
“You will in time.” He lifted the silver-rimmed plate, full of plum cake, brioche, and eggs. “Suppose you eat as we talk.”
“Not until Merrylad is returned to me.”
“The dog?”
She nodded at the same time he flexed his sore hand. The pain was dull now, if not nonexistent. No thanks to her vicious little devil-dog.
He handed her the fork. “When did your captain arrive?”
He’d suspected she would ignore him, or avoid the question, or lie that she hadn’t seen him at all. But she only sighed. “Last night.”
“You spoke?”
“No.”
“He is coming back?”
“I hardly think so. It almost seems as if…he knew this would happen. That I would be here. And that he wanted me to stay.”
“He does.”
Her body stiffened. “He knew…about you?”
“I spoke with him while you were gone from the cottage. That is why, of course, he was nowhere to be found when I came for you.”
She bolted to her feet.
He stood with her. “Now that I have made a matter clear for you, suppose you make one clear for me. Who is Jasper Ellis, and what do you know of him?”
“I know everything of him, none of which I am prepared to tell you.”
“You are a fool.”
“Not in this concern.”
“That man has hidden you in that isolated forest, kept you from your family, lied to you…possibly even murdered the woman who birthed you. Does this mean nothing to you?”
