“Betrothed.” Harald blinked, then rose up on one elbow. “A handfasting? A marriage?”
She nodded, blinking. “Yes,” she gulped, then wept, tears overflowing her lids and making their way down her cheeks. Never. She had sworn it. Never. She would never bind herself to a man. Why was she breaking this promise now?
Because it was Harald.
“Fiona,” he was saying, his lips brushing her tears away. “I love you. More than anyone in the wide green world.”
“But?” she prompted, when he hesitated.
“My family,” he sighed. “I have to know. And they have to know.” One hand clenched in a frustrated fist. “I cannot…I cannot stay here. Not with that uncertainty hanging over me. It would drive me mad.”
Slowly, she nodded. She knew. Knew just how that doubt could gnaw away at one’s happiness. She had sear
