Please believe me.
“Iona,” Archer said again, more firmly. “If ye speak such words, ye must give reason.”
Her breath faltered.
“I do not know her motives, but I do know that I was there,” she said, her voice unsteady. “At MacFarlane.”
Frederick’s hand did not release hers.
She clung to that.
“I served in the castle,” she continued, forcing the words forward despite the tightening in her chest. “As a maid. I saw things that did not belong. Things that were hidden.”
Archer leaned slightly forward. “What things?”
“There were women,” she said, her voice thinning as the memory took hold. “Locked away. I did not know why at first. I only knew they were not meant to be seen.”
Her breathing quickened, each inhale shallow, each exhale uneven.
“I should have left it,” she said. “I should have stayed silent. But I could not. I helped them. I helped them all to escape.”
The room seemed to close in around her.
“And she knew,” Iona said, her words rushing now, breaking over themselves. “Lady Noor knew. She always knows. Nothing moves in her walls without her seeing it. If women are taken, if they are hidden, if they are being?—”
“Iona.”
Frederick’s voice cut through her rising panic, firm and steady.
She stopped at once, though her breath would not.
“I cannae…” she tried, but the air would not come properly.
Frederick rose.
The movement was immediate and decisive, leaving no space for interruption.
“We will speak of this tomorrow,” he said, his gaze fixed on Archer.
Archer stood as well, tension sharpening his features. “If this concerns me household, I will hear it now.”
“Nay,” Frederick replied, his tone unwavering. “Ye will hear it when I decide it is time.”
“This is nae a matter to be delayed.”
“It is nae a matter to be forced from a woman who can scarcely breathe.”
Archer’s jaw tightened, but he did not step forward.
Frederick had already turned away. His focus returned entirely to Iona as he guided her to her feet, his hand steady at her back.
“Come,” he said quietly. “Ye are done here.”
She could not have argued if she had tried.
The hall blurred as he led her from it, her breath uneven, her grip on him unrelenting as though the world might tilt if she let go.
By the time they reached his chambers, the tightness in her chest had only just begun to loosen.