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His mother’s lips made a perfect o.

“Together we can do anything.” James caught his breath. “Her spirit inspires me. And she has the most beautiful . . .”

He cleared his throat.

His parents blinked.

His mother spoke first. “She sounds . . . extraordinary.”

“She is.” James’s ears felt cool now in comparison to his face. “I’m not worthy of her. Becoming so is my life’s work. My life’s joy.”

“You love her.” His father said it thoughtfully. He was stroking his wife’s hand. The two of them exchanged a meaningful glance.

“I love her.” James waited, not for permission, but with a hope flickering into being. The hope of a blessing.

“Caroline and I know something about love.” His father spoke in his usual mild voice. But his smile, and that melted look in his eyes, revealed depths of emotion usually hidden.

“Enough to want it for you, above all else.” His mother wafted forward on her raft of violet-scented flounces. She kissed James on the cheek.

“Go after her,” she said.

“This isn’t sporting!”

Tib ignored James’s shout and hiked her skirts higher, running as fast as she could over the stone flags of the entrance hall.

“You got a tremendous head start!”

Not enough of a head start. Tib wished she’d sprinted immediately from the doorway, that she hadn’t heard what she’d heard. Or else, she wished she’d lounged longer in the bed, hadn’t ventured out at all. But, except for a few scattered days of illness, she’d never lain abed so late in all her life. Lounging had felt too strange. And she was hungry. She’d thought she might find a serving girl, someone to sneak her a few bannocks.

Instead, she’d found James, the duke, his mistress.

And perfect agony.

James slapped his hands on the door at the same moment she grabbed the handle.

“I won,” he cried.

“Weel done.” She put a sneer in her lilt and pulled hard on the handle.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m off to see the Morrisons.” She named one of the very few families who lived on Selchskerrie.

“For what?”

“For breakfast.” She stared at the door, very grand, like a church door, but bigger, with studs.

“I can ring for rolls and a pot of chocolate.”

Chocolate! She’d drunk chocolate before, on one divine occasion. Her mouth watered. She had to force the frown. “Bannocks and beer are more to my taste.”

“Tib.” He touched her shoulder, which gave her the opportunity she needed to jerk open the door. She flashed past him, and then she was dashing across the long, sloping lawn.

Yesterday, she’d been too depleted to look around properly. Now, as she ran, she beheld the sweeping green grounds, the blue sea.

There was Dearnrigg, lit by the morning sun. She’d stood so many times on Muckle Rock gazing at Selchskerrie. Her world had reversed. She felt dizzy and didn’t realize she’d stopped running until James drew up beside her.

She turned toward him instinctively. She’d last seen him naked, the sheets tangled about his hips, a muscular arm draped casually over her chest.