Aye, he’d entertained the thought of her being the king’s bastard daughter, and had dismissed the thought as quickly. A sword’s wrath, why had he nae considered it further? He gave a frustrated sigh. As if it mattered now.
Her true identity explained her desperate act of following him to the docks, but it didna justify how she could have given him her innocence.
The writ he carried was but a document. Once delivered, it could be forgotten. “Why did you nae tell me who you were before?”
“When we first met, you were injured and a stranger and I dared not give you my trust. As we traveled and I found myself beginning to care for you . . .” She shook her head. “I was at a crossroads as to what I should do.”
She reached for him, but he stepped back. He couldna let her touch him now and haze his logic with another surge of emotion. He needed time to think, to understand how Alesia could withhold from him something of such import.
Alesia?
Nae, Marie, King Philip’s bastard daughter.
Colyne narrowed his gaze at the lass he’d never truly known, a woman who made him forget Elizabet, and a woman about whom he’d planned on speaking with her father to break her betrothal. Bedamned the entire situation! With a rough sigh, he nodded. “Continue.”
Regret shadowed her eyes. “I was overwhelmed by everything you made me feel. Everything you made me want. I was unsure if my emotions were clouding my decisions. Neither could I do anything to jeopardize reaching my father.”
As he remained silent, distress shadowed her face.
“Do you not think I wanted to tell you who I was? I hated my indecision. I despised holding back something so important to a man for whom I deeply cared. Every time I considered telling you the truth, I would think, what if I am wrong and he is loyal to England? With Scotland’s freedom at stake, I could not take such a chance. Even,” she said with a soul-searching look, “at the risk of losing you.”
Colyne fisted his hands until his knuckles grew bloodless. “I took your innocence.”
“Non,” she countered softly. “That I offered you. You knew naught of my betrothed or my royal heritage. Had you known either, you would have left me untouched.” She hesitated. “I wanted you, Colyne. More than anything. Caught up in my desires, too late I realized the consequences of our making love. At first I believed that my state of innocence mattered not in my marriage bed. Now I realize how foolish was that thought. It terrifies me to think of the reactions of my father and my betrothed if they learn the truth. Without intending to, I have endangered your life. You must understand, I was trying to protect you.”
“By telling me lies?” he demanded, far from appeased.
“It was the only way I could think of to keep you safe. Once we parted, I would disappear. Even if you tried to find me, knowing the name Alesia, unaware of my royal tie and where I lived in France, you would never have found me.”
A truth Colyne damned.
Tears glistened in her eyes and she wiped them away. “I expected you to become frustrated in your search for me and, in the end, grow to hate me. After the intimacy we shared, how could you not?” Her lower lip trembled. “But at least I would know you were safe.”
Sincerity draped her words, a gut-wrenching honesty that had Colyne wanting to draw her into his arms. An action that would solve naught.
Moss-green eyes pleaded with his. “Though I do not expect you to forgive me, please try to understand why I did not tell you the truth.”
Sadly, her reasons for withholding her royal tie made sense, which helped little.
“I am sorry.”
As was he. “How did you escape from your abductors?” Colyne asked, as he struggled at how best to proceed.
Her brow wrinkled in surprise. “You heard about my abduction?”
“Aye. When the Duke of Renard’s actions reached Robert Bruce, he called an emergency meeting in the Highlands, the area in which our spies believed you to be hidden.”
“So you are aware of the reason as well?”
“Indeed.” The twisted humor of the situation was nae lost on him. Here he’d traveled at a devil’s pace to inform King Philip of the true culprit behind Marie’s abduction when with his every step she’d traveled at his side. He shot her a wry smile. “You are the reason I am en route to France.”
She frowned. “What?”
Colyne withdrew the leather-covered document he’d secreted from the Highlands. “ ’Tis an explanation from Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, Guardian of the Realm of Scotland to King Philip, explaining the Duke of Renard’s abduction and his reason—to use you to enrage your father to the point of severing ties with Scotland.”
“Back when we were almost caught by the stream,” she said, her voice falling to a whisper, “you entrusted the writ to me when you . . .”
“Believed I was going to die.”
