Page 226 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 1-4

It wouldn’t matter if she hadn’t wanted to give him those things, but she had wanted to, so she did. Giving him small pieces of herself, not realising what was happening, not understanding what she was doing until it was too late.

Love had rooted itself so deep inside her she was never going to be able to cut it out.

Her fingers were cold, and Dominic must have felt them, because as he lifted his head, he frowned. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked, concern in his eyes.

‘Oh, yes.’ She quickly pulled her hand from his and pasted on a smile. ‘I’m fine.’

She tried to ignore the feeling as she and Dominic received congratulations from Polly and John, before Dominic took her hand and led her back through the forest to the manor.

She didn’t speak the whole way, her throat tight, her chest hurting. She was acutely conscious of her hand in his, of the ring of oak leaves circling her finger, and, try as she might, she couldn’t ignore the feeling in her heart, strong and aching, binding itself with her soul.

Love had never been spoken of in her grandparents’ house. No one had ever said to her ‘I love you’. It was only ever ‘for your own good’ or ‘we only want what’s best for you’. Even Sonya hadn’t said those words to her, not even when her grandparents had taken her away from Earthsong. Her mother hadn’t even protested, leaving Maude to watch her walk away without a backwards look.

Once Maude had realised that they weren’t going back to Earthsong, that the ice cream had been only a pretext to get her into the car, she’d wept all the way to her grandparents’ house, an empty feeling in her heart. As if the most beautiful grove of trees had been growing there, but now they’d been cut down and the grove razed, the earth salted.

At her grandparents’ house, there had been no wild forests for her to find comfort in. No garden of flowers. No herbs. No trees or even plants. There had been only a concreted space for her grandfather to park his car and that was it. Living there had killed something in Maude’s soul.

She’d tried to make the best of it, since she’d had nowhere else to go, tried to be a good girl for her grandparents. School, with its playgrounds of concrete and metal, with timetables and bells, and rigid rules around behaviour, had been its own special hell. She’d tried there too, because her grandparents had given up their retirement to make sure she’d have a better start in life than what her mother could give her. They were doing it for her, they’d said.

Yet it had never felt as though they were doing it for her. It had felt as if she was a millstone around their necks that they’d had no choice but to deal with. And her mother, for all the freedom Sonya had given her, had made her feel that way too.

Maude had never been a child either her mother or her grandparents had wanted. She hadn’t been a child at all. What she’d been was a rope around their necks, dragging them down.

You’ll drag him down too.

Yes, she would. Eventually. He hadn’t chosen her because he’d wanted her. He’d chosen her out of necessity. For their baby’s sake. And knowing that really shouldn’t hurt, since the baby was more important than either her or Dominic’s feelings, and yet...

Maude fought to ignore the abruptly painful feeling in her heart as they came out of the forest and walked over the lawn to the manor. Dominic turned then, not making for the front door as she’d expected, but heading along the little brick path that led to the walled garden. And when she stepped through the stone doorway into it, the feeling inside her became even more painful, because a white silk pavilion had been erected near the pond in the middle, a table and chairs set out beneath it. On the table was food, drink, and the most perfect little wedding cake.

Maude stopped, her eyes suddenly full of tears.

He’s done all this for you and you don’t deserve it—not any of it.

Of course she didn’t. She’d saddled him with a life he’d never wanted and now couldn’t get out of.

She was the one tyinghimdown. Not vice versa.

Dominic, slightly ahead of her and still holding her hand, turned. Then, obviously noticing the look on her face, frowned. ‘Maude? What is it?’

She let go of his hand. ‘I... I’m not feeling well.’ The lie rolled off her tongue so smoothly it was as if she’d been lying all her life.

His expression became concerned and he stepped closer. ‘You’re not? How so?’

‘Just a headache.’ She clasped her hands together so he wouldn’t seem them trembling. ‘It’s nothing.’

‘It isn’t nothing.’ He reached for her clasped hands and pulled them gently apart, the warmth of his skin against her numb fingertips. ‘Your fingers are cold.’ His frown deepened. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘It’s nothing,’ she repeated and tried to pull her hands away.

Except he held onto them. ‘It’s something,’ he said quietly. ‘It’s not a headache, is it?’

Maude tried to get a breath, tried to think of another lie, but the way he was looking at her now, she knew he’d never believe her. It was as if he could see right inside her head, read her mind, know all her thoughts.

‘I just...’ She jerked her hands out of his and stepped back from him, putting some distance between them. ‘What is this for?’

He made no effort to reach for her again, frowning. ‘This? What do you mean this?’

‘The ceremony. The crowns. The rings.’

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