Beauty Tempts the Beast (Sins for All Seasons #6) - Lorraine Heath Page 0,40
bold, and daring as he.
It was several long minutes before he finally stood, settled his beaver hat on his head, and turned to face her.
“I apologize if I disturbed you,” she uttered with all sincerity.
“You didn’t, but you were supposed to take the cab back to the residence.”
“This area isn’t exactly teeming with cabs. I decided it would be better to return here and have the driver wait for us in order to ensure you’re there when I meet the ladies. I’m a bit anxious about my first encounter with them, to be honest.”
He studied her for a full minute before nodding. “You have such confidence it hadn’t occurred to me you might be experiencing a spat of nerves. You were right to bring the cab back. We should be off.”
“Did you love her?” The words were out before she could stop them, before he could leave, and she realized she already knew the answer. It resided in the flowers, the manner in which he’d been kneeling, the somberness, the sadness that now clung to him like a well-worn cloak.
Shoving his gloved hands into the large pockets of his greatcoat, he looked up at the graying sky. “It was hard not to love Sally. She often complained that her mouth was too wide and her teeth too crooked, but when she smiled, her dark eyes sparkled, and it was like a thousand tapers had been lit to brighten the world.”
Such profound, poetic words. Her throat tightened, and she wondered how she might explain the tears stinging her eyes. She was rather certain that the Earl of Chadbourne had never spoken so passionately about her or held her in such tender regard, for if he had, surely, he wouldn’t have broken things off after her father’s fall from grace. Surely, he would have stood by her. “Sally was a fortunate woman indeed to have such devotion. But she died so young. Had you plans to marry her?”
He met her gaze. “My affections toward her never ventured beyond friendship.”
“Friends seldom leave such an abundance of flowers.” Costly ones at that.
“Ah, those . . . My attempt at easing my guilt. I’m the one responsible for her death.”
Before the words had fully settled like an anvil on her chest, he removed his watch from his pocket, flipped open the cover with a practiced flick of his thumb, studied the time, and tucked it back into place. He jerked his head toward the path down which she’d traveled to arrive here. “We’ve lingered long enough.”
A tenseness threaded through his voice, as though he dreaded her response to his earlier confession, regretted making it, was hoping by moving on to another topic he’d never learn her thoughts on the subject.
“I don’t believe for a single moment you killed her.”
“Not directly but I may as well have.”
He started to move past her, and she stopped him easily with a hand on his arm, an arm thick with firm muscle, the strength of it clear even through his greatcoat. “You can’t possibly believe you can say something like that and not clarify.”
He studied her intently. “Do you remember my saying that the brothel came about as a favor to a friend?”
She nodded.
“She was the friend, in need of a place where she could safely ply her wares, so I provided it.”
“She was a fallen woman?”
He gave a little scoff. “More girl than woman. Fifteen when she started working. Sixteen when she approached me to see if I’d provide her with a sanctuary. She had a way about her that made it impossible to refuse her. In that one regard, at times you remind me of her.
“Anyway, some years later, one night I heard her scream. I don’t know what the blighter did to her before I got to the bedchamber, but by the time I burst through the door he was straddling her and banging her head against the floor. I dragged him off her, beat him bloody, and tossed him out into the street. By the time I returned to her, she was sitting on the edge of the bed. She said her head hurt a little, and she was going to retire for the night. I wished her pleasant dreams. On the way out, she patted my shoulder. ‘Always my hero.’ She was dead by morning. A true hero would have known to fetch a physician.”
Her heart was breaking for him. How could he believe any of that was his fault? “That’s the reason you