Bronwyn grabbed a clump of hay and threw it at his head.
He pinned her arms to her side. “Tell me what I said that night,” he insisted.
“You don’t remember!” How could he forget something that meant so much to her?
“All I remember is us screaming at each other, then I got on my horse. I don’t even remember where I was going. Somewhere along the way I fell on the ground and slept. In the morning I realized I’d probably lost you through my idiocy, and so I decided to do something to try to win you back.”
“Is that why you went to King Henry? To win me back?”
“I didn’t do it for any other reason,” he said. “I hate court. All that waste!”
She stared at him, then laughed. “You sound like a Scot.”
“King Henry also said I was no longer English, that I sounded like a Scot.”
She laughed and began to kiss him.
He pushed her away. “I still haven’t had an answer from you. All the time I was at court I thought you were with my brothers. Gavin was so angry he refused to write me. I think he assumed I knew you’d walked out of his house that night I left. You and Miles scared them half to death, you know.”
“But not you?” she asked. “What did you think when you found out I’d returned to Scotland?”
“I didn’t have time to think!” he said in disgust. “Gavin, Raine, Miles, and Judith lectured me for days. When they got through, they stopped speaking to me.”
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“And all the time I was in Scotland, you didn’t even send a message to me!”
“But you left me!” he half shouted. “You should have sent a message to me!”
“Stephen Montgomery!” she gasped. “I did not leave you. You’ve just said you rode to King Henry. Was I supposed to sit and wait for your return? What should I have told your family, that you preferred a fat trollop to me? And after the things you said!” She looked away from him.
He put his fingers on her chin and drew her face back so she looked at him. “I want to know what I said. What made you leave me? I know you, and if it’d been only the wench you wouldn’t have left. You’d probably have taken a hot poker to her.”
“She deserved torturing!” Bronwyn said hotly.
Stephen’s tone was firm, almost cold. “I want to hear what you have to say.”
Although he was above her, she looked away. The tears came to her eyes easily. She’d never cried so much in her life, she thought with disgust. “You said I was selfish, that I was too selfish to love. You said I hid behind my clan because I was afraid to grow up. You said…you were going to find a woman who wasn’t cold and who could give you what you need.”
Stephen’s mouth dropped open in astonishment, then he started to laugh.
She looked up at him in shock. “I see nothing humorous in my faults,” she said coldly.
“Faults!” he gasped amid his laughter. “Lord! I must have been very drunk! I didn’t know anyone could get that drunk.”
She tried to roll away from him. “I will not be laughed at! Perhaps it’s my selfish nature that causes me to be unable to see the humor in your words.”
Stephen pulled her back to him. She pushed him, and for a moment he let her win the struggle, then, still laughing, he pulled her back under him. “Bronwyn,” he said seriously. “Listen to me. You are the most unselfish person I ever met. I have never seen anyone care so little for herself and so much for others the way you do. Didn’t you realize that that’s why I was so angry when you went over the side of the cliff? You had the power to order anyone else to go, or you could have done as Douglas advised and regarded Alex as dead. But not you! Not my dear, sweet laird. You thought only of the life of one of your clan members, not of yourself.”
“But I was so afraid,” she confessed.
“Of course you were! That just emphasizes your courage—and your unselfishness.”
“But why…?” she began.
“Why did I call you selfish? I guess because I was so hurt, because I love you so much and you didn’t love me. And to tell the truth you sometimes make me feel very mortal. I’m afraid I don’t have half your courage.”
“Oh, Stephen, that’s not true. You’re very courageous. You took on four Englishmen with only a bow when we were at Kirsty’s the first time. And it took great courage to give up your English clothes and become a Scot.”