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seeming full of pain. ‘It wasn’t long before I found out how badly I’d been fooled. Kathleen refused point-blank to let me into her bed. What’s more, she’s a shrew, treats her servants and everyone she considers beneath her badly. When I asked her not to be so harsh she began to quarrel with me. I was always hobnobbing with servants, you see, giving away my money to any fool who told me lies, not behaving properly. I think her idea of good manners had been beaten into her by her parents and she seemed unable to change any of the “rules” they’d set in her mind.
    ‘And then, when they arrested me, she immediately believed the worst. She didn’t come to see me once in jail, sending a message that she wanted nothing to do with a traitor.’
    ‘Oh, Conn! That’s dreadful. How sad you must have been.’
    ‘Yes. I should have had the marriage annulled. I had grounds for doing so. But once I was in prison I didn’t have any chance to do that and since I’ve been here, I’ve not seen any reason to bother. It’d take years and what decent woman would want to marry a convict, anyway?’
    ‘I would.’ She heard him suck his breath in sharply and wondered if she’d been too forward.
    ‘Oh, my dear, you’re the last person I’d burden with a convict husband. You’re young and unspoiled, and I pray you’ll stay that way. You deserve so much more.’
    ‘Not so young. I’m twenty-seven.’
    ‘And I’m several years older.’
    ‘What if I don’t change my mind?’
    ‘Then I’ll have to send you away, so that you can recover from your madness. I love you too much to mar your life.’
    There was silence and she didn’t know what to say, how to persuade him that she’d never be able to forget him. Before she could think, he’d gone on speaking.
    ‘My father was as bad as Kathleen. He didn’t believe me when I told him I was innocent, I don’t know why.’
    ‘When did he die?’
    ‘He isn’t dead. Crippled as she is, my mother left him and ran away to join me here because—’ he hesitated.
    ‘Because she believed you were innocent,’ Maia finished for him.
    ‘Yes. She’s a wonderful woman, with a keen sense of justice. She knew I’d been wrongly accused. But my cousin Michael provided so-called proof and I was convicted out of hand.’
    There was silence but they didn’t move apart, then he said quietly, ‘So you see, I can do nothing about our love without ruining you. And I won’t do that, my dear.’
    She waited for a moment to be sure she meant it, because she knew what she said would damn her in most people’s eyes and perhaps in his, but she loved him so much, she couldn’t bear to think of leaving him, living without him. ‘I’d be honoured to become your mistress, Conn.’
    ‘ Honoured! ’ He pushed her away, turning her to face him as he did so and giving her a little shake. ‘Do you think I’d do that to a wonderful, decent girl like you? Maia, I love you far too much to ruin you. I’d have sent you away before now if my mother didn’t need you so much.’
    She smiled and lifted one hand to caress his cheek, something she’d longed to do for months. ‘I’d not go, not now that I know you love me.’
    ‘Then heaven help us both, because if it was hard to keep my distance before, it’ll be a Herculean task now.’
    ‘I don’t want you to keep your distance, Conn.’
    ‘I must. I couldn’t live with myself if I ruined an innocent girl.’
    He didn’t push her away, though, so she allowed herself to nestle against him. Once he sighed softly and a little later dropped a kiss on her hair, as ephemeral as a butterfly landing there.
    She could have stood there in his arms all night, but she heard Xanthe calling from the kitchen door. With a sigh, she pushed away from him.
    He pulled her back to press another of those gentle kisses on her cheek, then turned away and walked back towards the stables.
    Drawing a deep breath, Maia took a moment to calm down, then turned