“Why do you ask me that?” she confronted him quite fearlessly.
“Sure, now, didn't he give you my message, or did he bungle it?”
“No. He didn't bungle it. He gave it me in your own words. It touched me very deeply. It made me see clearly my error and my injustice. I owe it to you that I should say this by way of amend. I judged too harshly where it was a presumption to judge at all.”
He was still holding her hand. “And Lord Julian, then?” he asked, his eyes watching her, bright as sapphires in that copper-coloured face.
“Lord Julian will no doubt be going home to England. There is nothing more for him to do out here.”
“But didn't he ask you to go with him?”
“He did. I forgive you the impertinence.”
A wild hope leapt to life within him.
“And you? Glory be, ye'll not be telling me ye refused to become my lady, when....”
“Oh! You are insufferable!” She tore her hand free and backed away from him. “I should not have come. Good-bye!” She was speeding to the door.