Duncan did not know precisely what he had said to persuade Eglantine and he did not care. He was too startled that she had agreed—’twas unlike the lady to readily reconcile herself to his will.
It could only be a good portent. Eglantine was his woman—at least for a year and a day. And in that year and a day, he would woo her and win her, Duncan knew it to be so.
A fortnight from her side had done naught to diminish Eglantine’s appeal. Duncan had known the truth of it the first moment he spied her on that roof, and his heart pounded fit to burst.
He had seen naught but Eglantine, slender, strong, and struck by sunlight, her lips parted in surprise. She was tanned and glowing, more hale and more beautiful than he had recalled. There had been something in the depths of her emerald eyes whe
