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“James,” she began, hands trailing over him, absently now.

“Yes?”

“Why wouldn’t you wait?”

Shame, regret, anger—too many emotions knotted in his throat.

“Because I’m a fool.”

“Besides that,” she said wryly.

“Because . . .” He hesitated. Here was his true Achilles heel. The more he said the more vulnerable he’d make himself.

He wasn’t laughing now. Her one hand rested at his hip. The other hand had traveled away from his ribs, over the muscles of his chest, and stopped. His heart beat against her palm.

“Because my father’s there,” he said.

“Och, aye.” Isobel sounded like she was rolling her eyes, and she made her voice a singsong, a sure sign she was trying to annoy him. “Ye are a fool and yer da’s on Selchskerrie. Tell me something I dinna⁠—”

“He’s with another woman.”

“Oh.” Isobel paused. “Oh.”

“And Arthur’s in Spain.”

Slowly, Isobel slid her hands out from under his shirt.

James gated his sigh of regret with his teeth.

“I wasn’t aware,” said Isobel, with uncommon graveness. Dearnrigg had sent its share of men to the war. Not all of them came back.

“He sailed shortly after we returned to London, three years ago.”

“Is he . . . ? He’s well?”

“I had a letter from him two weeks ago. He’s well, for now. The fighting is fierce.”

She moved a little away on the thwart and turned toward him, her knee pressing his thigh.

James could feel her gaze, could almost make out the shine of her eyes. She’d always been lit from within, the brightest being he’d ever known.

He wouldn’t let her perish in this dark place.

He realized she was waiting for him to speak.

“My family didn’t go to the isles the next summer, or the next,” he said. “You know that, of course. You enjoyed the respite, from me and my nefarious plans.”

She shifted and muttered something vaguely contrary.

“Or you were saddened by my absence.” He raised a brow. “Because you had an armory filled with stones and no target.”

She snorted. “Stop with that look.”

“You can’t see me.”

“I can picture your expression. It’s exceedingly disagreeable.”

“Better?” He waggled both brows.