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She looked into his eyes. Before she knew it, Lance had reached under her sleeve and grabbed her wrist. That simple touch was enough to set her heart racing, and she startled when he pulled back her sleeve.

“Your mother gave it to you?”

He unclasped the bracelet and took it from her.

“For a time, aye.”

He lifted it so she could see more closely.

“Good, for it is yours.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Did you see this?”

Idalia looked at the engraving that she and her mother had noticed that first day.

“Aye. We wondered about that from the start.”

“Look closer. What do you see?”

She did as he asked. “’Tis a circle.”

“Closer.”

It was difficult to concentrate standing so near him. Idalia breathed in all that was Lance and attempted to see something more. For the first time, she noticed the faintest of lines around the circle.

“Lines. Faint ones. ’Tis the sun,” she realized.

Lance took her hand, but true to his word to her father, he did nothing more than place the bracelet back around her wrist, his touch gentle.

“’Tis the sun,” he confirmed.

And she understood.

The bracelet had not been for her mother after all.

Idalia. The meaning of her name was “behold the sun.”

“You made this for me.”

He nodded.

“I did.”

Idalia grabbed his hand before he could pull it away.

Lance touched his finger to his lips. She’d kissed his fingers briefly. Moments later, a knock had landed on the door, after which it had burst open to admit Tilly, who had apparently learned of his visit from their mother. When Lady Stanton had arrived to retrieve her, his reunion with Idalia had turned into a family gathering. And though she’d softened a bit when he told her of the bracelet, she was still angry with him.

Which was why he was roaming the halls of Stanton in the dead of night. He knew he should return to the bedchamber the seneschal had installed him in after he first spoke to Lord and Lady Stanton. If the earl caught him out here at this time of night, there would be no way to explain his presence in the corridors.

Except he still needed to speak to Idalia.

She had not accepted his offer of marriage.

They’d agreed to talk on the morrow, and yet, he found he could not wait.

Lance cursed his decision not to take a torch or candle with him. Having worked in darkness his entire life, Lance could easily navigate it when he knew his surroundings. Stanton Castle was not so familiar. Still, Idalia’s maid had given him directions to her chamber door, and it was blessedly in a separate tower from her parents.