She’d steeled herself to accept that there was no future with her prince, no faerie tale ending. She could even bear the pain of knowing that he loved another, if only because it spoke of his devoted heart.
She was not prepared for him to think so shabbily of her.
To think that she was…a trollop.
Bea was right, she realized numbly. He only wanted one thing from me. What happened wasn’t magical, it was cheap.
“Fancy, I’m sorry. Please don’t cry.”
His jagged words sliced through her daze of pain. She hadn’t realized that she was crying. Mortified, she turned away from him, wiping her apron over her eyes, catching the tears she couldn’t stop.
“Just go,” she said in muffled tones.
“I am not leaving you.” Suddenly, he was behind her, turning her around, his arms surrounding her tightly. “God, I’m such a bastard.”
His gruff admission unraveled her. She pounded at the cage of his strength, venting her anger at him. He didn’t stop her and didn’t let her go. He just held her until she stopped fighting and wept. For her broken dreams and lost innocence. She cried, soaking his waistcoat, his hand stroking soothingly over her back. Finally, all she had left were shuddering breaths.
Then Knight spoke, his voice deep and gravelly beneath her ear.
“I cannot apologize enough for what I believed,” he said. “Growing up a poor and fatherless urchin in the rookery, I, of all people, know what it is like to be judged for one’s origins. How unfair and hurtful it feels. I have no excuse for doing that to you.”
In her present state, there were few things he could have said to reach her.
Just then, he’d said them.
His exquisite understanding of her pain was almost as astonishing as what he had revealed about himself. During their journey together, they had discussed varied topics, from his work to his siblings, but the one thing he’d avoided talking about was his own origins. He’d said next to nothing about his mother or his childhood.
She raised her head from his chest. “You grew up poor and fatherless?”
“I didn’t know the identity of my father until a year ago,” he said steadily. “My maman wouldn’t talk about it, just told me that he’d died before I was born. I suspected I was a bastard. She worked as a seamstress, barely earning enough for us to survive. I stole, fought, did whatever I could to help put food on our table. She died when I was twenty, and for all the time I knew her, she never had an easy life.”
Fancy didn’t know what to say. Even though she knew he had a rags-to-riches story, she hadn’t realized that his rags were, well, actually rags.
He took out a handkerchief, drying her tears as he went on, “Last year, I was summoned to the deathbed of Arthur Huntingdon, the Duke of Knighton. For reasons too lengthy to get into now, he told me that he’d abandoned my mother, but they had been legally wed. Which meant that I was his legitimate issue and sole heir.”
“That must ’ave been shocking,” Fancy said, wide-eyed.
“To say the least.” He cupped her cheek in his big hand. She knew she ought to pull away, but she was mesmerized by his warm and smoky gaze. “I’m telling you my history because I want you to understand that I have never thought you were beneath me in any way. If anything, you are too good and sweet for a man like me. You deserve a fellow who can give you all of his heart, and I cannot do that. But I have other things to offer, if you’ll do me the honor of listening to my proposal.”
His thumb brushed briefly along her cheekbone before he let her go. He waited silently, his hands clasping behind his back, his manner watchful.
Tell ’im to leave, the voice of reason said. Don’t let ’im ’urt you again.
Alas, her heart had never been sensible.
“What are you offering?” she asked.
He let go of a breath that she hadn’t realized that he was holding. The fact that he obviously cared about her response lowered her defenses a smidgen more.
“I am not a prince, but I do have a castle,” he said intently. “Several, actually, if run-of-the-mill mansions count. If not, there are a pair of chateaux in France we could visit any time you want. You said you wanted a place to settle, and I can give you that.”
‘E remembers, she thought wonderingly. ’E paid attention to