She waved aside that question with a flick of her hand. “I am fair certain that has to do with the DeVeaux’s hatred of all Murrays. Wheesht, Amiel’s own family could want me dead ere I can get home and tell my kin all they kept hidden from them. That truth could certainly cause Claud’s family more trouble than they wish to deal with.”
“There is naught I can tell ye, especially as I dinnae ken what picks at you.”
“Marie Anne.”
“Ah, your false husband’s true wife.”
Arianna nodded. “I have ignored how my thoughts kept turning to her. Feared it might be jealousy, but, nay, it isnae. It was rumored that she was the bastard get of some highborn lordling. I confess, I thought Marie Anne the one who started that rumor just to give herself some prestige, but now I begin to wonder. What if she was blood kin to someone verra highborn, mayhap verra powerful?”
“Someone who could make certain the marriage of Claud and Marie Anne stood firm.”
“Exactly. When I start wandering down that path I dinnae find so many answers but I do find more reasons for this hunt, e’en for the alliance between Amiel and the DeVeaux. Lord Ignace is no minor DeVeau lordling yet he also hunts the boys. At least the one I fear may be here isnae. There is something behind his presence here that I just cannae see, but ken ’tis important. If we could learn what that was then all our questions would be answered.”
“And that would be good but, in the end, it still doesnae matter.” Brian put his arm around her shoulders and tugged her close to his side.
“Nay, ye are right. In the end it doesnae matter at all. All that truly matters is that Michel and Adelar are nay hurt.” She rested her head against his shoulder and stared up at the night sky. “They deserve a life in which they are nay surrounded by scorn or in constant danger. It was why I was taking them home with me. I kenned that they could find that with my kin.”
“Ye will be able to give them that soon,” said Brian, hoping his reluctance to grant her wish to go home did not reveal itself in his voice.
Arianna forced herself not to wince. It hurt to hear him speak of sending her home once the threat from Amiel and the DeVeaux was gone. She had hoped he had begun to change his mind about that. Although she had little confidence in her judgments about people, especially considering what the man she had thought would make a good husband turned out to be, she had thought Brian showed a caring for her that went beyond that of just a satisfied lover. Now she was not so certain. If he did care for her as more than a woman who gave him pleasure, surely he would have begun to hint at some change in his original plan to send her home. She was not sure what else she could do to make him want to keep her.
“Did ye love him?” Brian nearly cursed as he heard himself ask the question, if only because he really did not wish to hear her talk about that thrice-cursed Claud.
“Love Claud? Nay, although I thought our marriage could become one of love.” She sighed and shook her head. “I was such a young, blind lass. Claud was handsome, charming, and always dressed so prettily. I thought he was treating me with great respect when he did nay more than gently kiss me from time to time. Now I see that what I thought was a gentlemon’s respect for a maid was really just distaste. He was doing what he had to, nay what he wanted to.”
“So when he courted ye he was weel spoken and ye thought ye could make a good marriage with him.”
“Aye. My kin tend to marry for love, ye ken. I wished to, too, but it was verra clear that many of my clan wanted there to be a marriage between Claud and me. They wanted to strengthen the old bonds between the two families. I could have refused for they ne’er would have forced me to do it, but I didnae. None of my kin who have a gift for seeing the truth of a mon were there at that time so I got no warnings to make me look closer at the mon I was to marry. I e’en saw it all as an adventure.
“It wasnae until we were wed and the marriage duly consummated that Claud began to shed his disguise. At first I tried verra hard to please him, thinking that he was but trying to turn me into a good wife. ’Twas the same with his parents. When they revealed their scorn, I tried harder to win their approval. I am nay quite certain when I ceased to try, when I began to think myself too full of faults to e’er be able to succeed in pleasing any of them.”
“Ye were nay full of faults.”