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Panic welled inside her. Liana could not breathe properly. What had she done?
He closed the gap between them, took both her hands in his, and met Liana’s gaze. “You had enough conviction in your reading to ask me here. Do not doubt yourself. Or blame yourself, if things do not go as planned. I was returning anyway, even before you called me here.”
Trying to ignore the pleasant feeling of her hands being gripped by his much larger, stronger ones, Liana let out a breath. “You were?”
“Aye. Against my father’s wishes, even hearing your mother’s reading. I understand my family has been advised well these many years. And have avoided conflict due to our bond with your ancestors. But . . . I am not my father. There must be a balance between the seer’s visions and my own mind and free will. Returning to Castle Blackwood, to the Order, is the right thing to do. And so I leave on the morrow.”
He released her hands, maybe sensing her panic had abated at his revelation. He was returning anyway.
“My mother will not allow me to travel alone with you.”
His smile was coy, making Sir Darien appear younger than his thirty years. Liana knew his age, remembering he was five winters older than she.
“Neither does my father plan to allow me to leave. But I will do so anyway.”
Oh dear. Could she really do this? Should she do this?
Liana turned from him, unable to form a coherent thought while looking at the earl’s son. She looked back to their cottage in the distance. What would Mother say if she did this? That she would ruin any marriage prospects by traveling alone with a man? Marriage eluded her anyway. She may be pleasing to look at, but no man wished to align himself with a witch, whether the claim was true or not. And Liana knew well the crushing weight of heartbreak and would happily avoid such a feeling ever again.
Liana knew how to write. She could leave a missive. Her mother would be extremely angry, but what was Liana’s other choice? To refuse him, and watch as Sir Darien left to continue fighting for, potentially, a failed cause?
An impossible choice.
She turned. “I could be wrong.”
“You could be right.”
Liana had already made her decision the moment he asked. The courage to actually say yes, though . . . that was another matter entirely.
“I’ve never left the Isle,” she said, more than a little afraid of what lay ahead.
“There is much to see beyond our borders. Think on it. There is a danger in coming with me. Though you will be safe at Castle Blackwood, if the tides turn and our Order is discovered . . . there is a risk.”
It was done. “And an even greater risk if the king keeps his crown. If there is a path forward for Empress Matilda . . .” She raised her chin. “We will discover it.”
Liana would say yes to this journey a thousand times over, despite the danger and her mother’s wrath, just for the way he smiled at her. And that, perhaps, was the biggest danger of all.
