“I won’t marry a man who thinks so little of me.” She threw the bedclothes off, jumped to the floor, and started dressing. “Ye could be the king of Scotland, and I wouldn’t have ye!”
“I think the world of ye,” Duncan said.
“Ye don’t,” she said. “I lived with a man for seven years who treated me as if I were nothing, and I won’t do it again.”
Duncan got out of bed and grabbed her arm as she started to leave the bedchamber.
“Get your damned hands off me!” She was so angry her vision was blurred. “I trusted you! How could ye do this to me again?”
“I want to give ye all the things ye ought to have—the things ye deserve,” he said.
“Ye still think of me as a shallow, spoiled girl,” Moira said. “I was never just that, and it is certainly not who I am now.”
She grabbed her cloak from the peg and opened the door without taking the time to put it on.
“Don’t leave like this,” Duncan said. “I love ye, Moira.”
“You’re no different from the other men who wanted to bed me,” she said over her shoulder. “Ye don’t love me. For God’s sake, Duncan, ye don’t even know me.”
Chapter 29
Moira was so confused and upset she did not know what to do with herself. How could Duncan believe he loved her and yet think so poorly of her? She dried her tears before she entered the castle to pay a visit on Ilysa. Perhaps Duncan’s sister could help her understand him.
After searching the keep and not finding Ilysa there, Moira crossed the courtyard to what had been her nursemaid’s home.
“Do ye mind a bit of company?” Moira asked when Ilysa answered her door.
“I’d enjoy it,” Ilysa said. “I’m just doing a bit of stitching.”
Moira suspected that if Connor were home, Ilysa would be doing the chore in the keep.
“I sense ye came here with a purpose,” Ilysa said after Moira sat down with her. “Is it about my brother?”
Moira appreciated the younger woman’s directness.
“Duncan said my father forced him to leave,” Moira said, deciding to start with that. “I wish I knew if it was true.”
“My brother has his faults, but he doesn’t lie,” Ilysa said in her quiet, sure voice.
“I didn’t think my father would lie to me, either,” Moira said.
“I wouldn’t know what that feels like, as I never knew my father,” Ilysa said, which reminded Moira that, though Ilysa looked young, she’d had her share of sorrows and struggles.
“The loss of your mother must have been difficult.” Moira turned to look out the small window and sighed. “If she were here, I would ask her what happened that day between Duncan and my father.”
“I was here and saw it all,” Ilysa said. “What do ye want to know?”
“You?” Moira asked. “Why, ye were still a child.”
“I was old enough,” Ilysa said. “Ach, your father was in a dreadful fury that morning.”
“Can ye tell me what happened?” Moira asked.
“The chieftain and your brother Ragnall woke my mother and me while it was still dark.” Ilysa stopped stitching but kept her gaze fixed on the shirt in her hands. “I know ye loved them, but they were hard men, and they were angry. When they asked where Duncan was, my mother started weeping.”
“I’m sorry they frightened you,” Moira said.
“I tried to comfort my mother, but she was inconsolable,” Ilysa said. “We told the chieftain we didn’t know where Duncan was, but I suspect now that my mother guessed he was with you.”