"Well, I suppose I might be a bit angry, too, had such a villain corrupted my son."

"He's not a villain."

Fayth turned to the girl. "You don't know that. He seems like a hero to you because he got your father in a lather, but he's naught but a common outlaw."

Diana's cheeks flushed, but she held Fayth's stare. "He saved my brother from h.e.l.l."

"I see. Your brother apparently was not a good monk. You think riding with an outlaw will get him into heaven?"

"You dinna ken him. I do."

"Ah. So that's the way it is. Will it be a virgin birth or do you plan to tell Lord Carlisle who the father is?" Though she wouldn't be the first girl to claim such a thing, it was doubtful Ashton Carlisle would believe it. But telling him Red Alex was the father might be more dangerous than lying.

Diana gasped, then laughed. "I'm not pregnant! And if I were, my father would never let me marry Red Alex!" She laughed again, twirling about the room so her skirts belled out. She stopped, hands on hips. "I dinna want to marry him anyway. I just wanted... well, I was curious..."

Fayth had to smile-it sounded like something she might have done. "You laid with him just to defy your father?"

Diana's knowing smile faded. "Will you tell Father?"

"Do you want me to?"

The girl chewed her lip thoughtfully. Fayth could see she didn't quite know what she wanted. She obviously loathed her father and wanted to hurt him, but this was not the way to go about it. She might find herself in dire circ.u.mstances, indeed, if he ever discovered the affair-a consequence the girl had obviously belatedly realized.

Fayth went to her, trying to smile gently, as Mona always did. "You don't want me to tell your father. Who knows what he'll do? He might even make you marry Red Alex." That elicited a strange shudder from Fayth-disgust, surely. "Let me tell you about Red Alex. I do know him."

Diana frowned.

Fayth nodded sagely. "Yes. He murdered my betrothed."

"Really?" Diana was not at all appalled. It was the way of things on the border, so Fayth strove to strengthen her statement.

"My father said I could wed how I chose or not wed at all. And so I chose Jack Graham. He had no t.i.tles or lands... but he was what I wanted."

Diana smiled sadly. "My father would never say that. He believes marriages are for alliances."

"No wonder he and Ridley get on so well."

"Why did Alex kill Jack?"

"Red Alex was holding him for ransom. My brother, Wesley, had collected the money but before he could deliver payment Red Alex wrote that Jack was dead."

Diana's eyes lit up. "Alex gave me a letter." She dug in her bodice, her tongue poking between her lips.

"I see you keep it close to your heart." Had the girl heard a word she said? Her lover was a murderer!

"Oh, I canna read it, nor can I ask our priest to. He would just tell my father." After groping inside her chemise for an interminable amount of time while Fayth watched with raised brows, Diana produced the missive. "Will you read it to me?"

Fayth looked from the wrinkled and soiled parchment to Diana and back. "Ah... I really don't-"

"Och, ye canna read either." Diana sighed.

Fayth didn't correct her misconception, though she was sore tempted to satisfy her curiosity. Diana stuffed the parchment back into her bodice dejectedly. What was it? Was he telling Diana to meet him for a tryst? Or some ridiculous poetry?

"Oh, very well! I can read it."

Diana fetched the letter back out. Fayth took it gingerly, unfolding it with her fingertips. She scanned the strong black scrawl, frowning. It was not written in English or Latin.

"What does it say?" Diana asked, anxiously gripping her skirts.

"When did he give this to you?"

"He gave it to me several months ago. He said if anything happened to him, I was to see that the abbot at Dun-fermline got it."

"Is that where your brother was, when Red Alex rescued him?"

Diana shook her head emphatically. "Oh no-Alex would never send anything there. The abbot of Dunfermline is a good monk-not evil."

Fayth blinked. "What did these monks do to your brother?"

Diana swallowed, clearly troubled by the thoughts. "I'm not supposed to speak of it... and I dinna really know, anyway."

Fayth suspected the girl was not being entirely truthful. She waited patiently, but apparently the subject was closed. Fayth shrugged, folding it and handing it to Diana. "I can't read it. I think it's French."

Fayth was wondering why Red Alex would be writing to an abbot when Diana said, "So you don't really know him. He just killed your betrothed."

Fayth cleared her throat. "Well... actually, I do know him. My sister is married to Red Alex's brother, Lord Annan. I was... visiting my sister at Annancreag and one night your lover, completely sotted, I might add, accosted me. Tried to molest me like a common wh.o.r.e."

Fayth felt a pang of guilt. So that wasn't the complete truth. Still, he had consumed a prodigious amount of whisky. And he had molested her... sort of. It didn't matter. Diana was a young innocent and must be warned away from such devilment.

Rather than becoming appalled, as Fayth had hoped, Diana seemed amazed. "And ye didna like it?"

Fayth let out an exasperated sigh and Diana giggled.

"He said my name meant the moon-that I was his moon."

"Well, Diana is a moon G.o.ddess," Fayth said. How odd that Red Alex knew that. Most borderers, those of gentle and common birth alike, could barely sign their own names, let alone read a book. But, of course, that single piece of knowledge meant nothing. He probably learned it from some priest before slaying him and stealing his rosary. The letter, however, was something of a mystery. He probably didn't even write it. It was likely lifted from one of his hapless victims. So then, why worry about delivering it to the abbot?

Diana's voice cut through her thoughts. "He never comes around anymore. Not since I refused to marry him."

"You didn't really want to marry a murdering, lecherous outlaw, did you?"

Diana shook her head. "Of course not! I would never marry so low. But still... He's so very handsome and he makes me laugh. Did Jack make you laugh? Is that why you wanted to marry a commoner?"

Fayth was suddenly eager for the girl to leave. She did not want to discuss Red Alex or Jack Graham anymore. She didn't even want to think about them. She had other, more pressing matters to contemplate. The door behind the carpet could mean freedom if she could get rid of her visitor.

"Well, yes. He was often amusing. But that's not why I wanted him."

"Ye keep saying wanted. Why did ye want him? Did ye love him?"