Page 33 of Wagered to the Orc
I cuddled her closer. “Ye can never be selfish, Effie. Ye are allowed to worry for yerself. The gods ken ye’ve had enough reasons.”
Settling myself on the bench outside the front door, I checked to ensure the horses had followed, then turned my attention to the woman in my arms.
“What was it ye were afraid of?”
She shook her head, her forehead pressed against my chest.
I rubbed my hand down her spine, a soothing motion. “Tell me, Effie. Please?”
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she finally straightened. “I was afraid…’twas John. Come to take me back.”
My heart stuttered, I swear it did.
“John is dead, love. I killed him because he was threatening ye.”
“I know.” She turned tear-filled blue eyes my way. “Iknow. But he hurt me so often, I sometimes am afraid…”
Her meaning was slow to penetrate my mind, but when they did, I sucked in a gasp.
John had been the bastard who’d hurt her.
“He—” Rage overtook my urge to comfort her, my muscles going tight. “Effie,was he the man ye—fook.” My jaw was so tight I could hear it creaking as I tried to confirm what I feared. “Was he the one ye sold yerself to?”
She swallowed, her eyes showing her wariness as her fingers patted and petted my chest. Then she nodded, uncertain.
“Fook,” I hissed, my claws digging into the wool of her gown. “Fook.I wish I’d beat him with my fists. He didnae deserve a quick death.”
“Nay, Korvak,” she blurted with a shake of her head, still stroking me. “Nay, you are not like that. Do not let the anger consume you.”
It took a moment to realizeshewas comfortingme.
And to my surprise, the realizationdidcalm me, likely out of sheer fascination. She was comforting me? She didn’t want me to harbor this rage?
I exhaled, gazing down into her wary eyes. “I am sorry, Effie.”
Her smile was a little crooked. “You were not the one to hurt me. Nor the one to make me believe I needed John’s protection so badly I should…allow the abuse.”
Uttering a curse I remembered from my father, I crushed her to me, burying my nose in her hair. “I am sorry I couldnae be there to protect ye when ye needed it.”
There.
That was the truth.
I’m sorry I didnae ken ye then. Didnae meet ye until after ye’d gone through such pain.
“I’m sorry I couldnae save ye.”
I felt her smile against the bare skin of my throat. “Oh, Korvak, the past is…passed. I was…” She sighed. “When I saw the visitors, I will admit I became irrationally scared. I feared they were humans, here to take me away.”
“Never,” I growled, tightening my hold on her. “I’ll never let anyone take ye away, never let ye be hurt again.”
‘Twas not until I realized she hadn’t responded to such a vow that I realized what I had said. The unspoken words she might have heard.
Clearing my throat, I set her away from me, on my lap so I could study her. Had I frightened her? Was that look fear, or consideration, or was she blushing because shewantedthat?
“Unless of course…” Torvor’s Hammer, how to come back from such a vow? “If ye want to return to the Tarbert keep. If ye dinnae like it here—”
“I do like it here,” she confessed in a whisper, her gaze flickering across my face, asif searching for a reaction. “But I know you have to take me to your village in a sennight for the full moon.”
