Page 28 of Love Me Forever

“Beautiful and handsome it is,” he agreed, pleased that she thought them a pair. ‘Tell me more of your husband.”

Her frown returned. “He was more selfish than I had thought. In his desire to gain status and wealth, he attempted to hurt those I loved—my brother and his wife.

He escaped before he could be punished for his crime.”

“His death?”

“My brother spared me the details, though my husband’s ring was returned to me as proof of his demise. I chose not to take it from my brother, and I care not how my husband met his end. It is over and I am glad. When he escaped, he took me prisoner, threatening to kill me so that my brother would not follow.”

“Coward.” Royce almost spit the word out in disgust

“My brother’s opinion as well. Arran soon discarded me, for I was a nuisance and slowed him down. He shoved me off the horse, dumping me on the road. He cared naught for my fate, only his.”

“He shoved you off his horse?” Royce asked, not believing he had heard her correctly.

She nodded. “My brother’s best friend, Blair, found me and returned me safely to the keep and my brother’s care. He then ordered that Arran be found at any cost.”

“Your brother did not go after him himself?”

“His wife had barely given birth to their son, his place was by her side, and besides, there was not a clansman who did not wish to see my husband caught and punished.”

“So your brother lacked no volunteers.”

“Nay, there were many,” she said with pride. “Unfortunately Arran could not be found, so my brother placed guards around me. The guards were only removed after my brother was certain Arran was gone and no longer a threat.”

“Your brother takes good care of you.”

“My brother loves me.” She spoke with pride of her clan and with love for her brother.

“And you him.”

“Aye, though he teased me often when I was young, he never failed to be there for me when I needed him. And I have tried to do the same for him. I realize now that if I had not allowed my pride to interfere and had spoken to my brother of the troubles in my marriage, he would have helped me.”

“What of fear?”

She stared at him for several silent moments. “I do not remember when I began to fear Arran and did not even realize that I did until it was too late. I made myself a prisoner.”

“You escaped—that is all that matters.”

“I did escape,” she said with a sense of pride.

“May I ask you what you failed to give him that appeared to anger him?”

She turned her head away briefly before returning her glance to him. “I could not give him children. I am barren.”

“Barren because he told you that you were?”

“I conceived no child the four years of our marriage. I must be barren.”

“Perhaps, perhaps not.” He did not add his thoughts, for they might upset her. He wished very much to prove that she was not barren. He had no doubt his seed would flourish within her and he had no doubt that she would find pleasure in their coupling.

Intimacy with her had been on his mind much of late, and it was becoming more and more of a challenge to remain a gentleman.

“Have you any children?” she asked.

“Nay, I have no children.” He paused and decided to add, “And no wife.”

She smiled before she could stop herself.