Page 109 of Rescued from Betrayal
She sucked in her breath. Where had they gone?
Frantically she searched the room, opening drawers and cabinets, but they were nowhere to be found.
Dejected, she threw herself on the bed. There would be no peace in her sketch, no relief in the pages of her beloved books, no comfort for her beleaguered soul. The sobs she’d been holding back all day broke free and she cried.
Nathaniel tossed his coat to Herbertson the moment he entered the townhouse. “Is she here?”
“Is who here, sir?”
“My wife, who else?” he snapped.
The stodgy man did not even flinch. “I believe she has already retired for the night.”
Snatching the hat from his head, Nathaniel tossed it at the man, then took the stairs two at a time. He’d wasted too much time searching for Melior after he’d realized the woman in Al’s arms was Lady Edith. However, the relief at knowing he’d finally found her was short lived as he approached their room.
Melior’s quiet sobs twisted the dagger in his heart. No doubt she thought he’d given up on her. That he’d thrown her aside the moment he’d heard her confession. All the pieces fell together in his mind.
Her distress when Al and Javenia had suggested Lord Caraway would want to get rid of her. Her fear before the ball. Her silence last evening when he’d told her all of this was not her fault.
She must have been racked with guilt.
And then there was her admission about being worried he’d throw her out like her parents had.
But he was not the man she’d thought him to be, and she was not the woman he’d thought she’d become. There was hope. Slowly he turned the handle to the door.
Melior, still dressed in her evening gown, lay curled in a ball, hands over her face. Her shoulders shook with each breath as she cried.
Everything in him screamed to go and comfort her, so he rushed to the bed and dropped down on his knees. Gently he brushed her hair away from her cheek.
Her swollen eyes blinked open and she pulled away.
“Who’s there?”
He pulled back in surprise, then remembered at this distance and with the light so low, she probably could not discern his features.
“It’s me, Mel,” he said softly.
“Nathaniel.” Her voice cracked on his name and she choked on a sob.
Carefully he climbed on the bed, and leaning up against the headboard, gathered her to him.
“I… I thought you…”
“But I did not, Melior. I am here.”
She cried against his chest, and he held her. He held her through the pain of betrayal and abandonment, through the ache of knowing her friend and possibly her mother had never wanted her, through the frustration she must have felt at being forced to be anyone but herself for years.
But mostly he held her because she needed him to. The fire in the hearth sputtered and dimmed as it ran out of fuel, leaving only the candle Melior had lit on the bedside table. Gradually her tears slowed and the room grew silent.
“Why?”
Her question surprised him. “Why what?”
“Why would you come back after all I have done?”
Several strands of Melior’s hair had come free of its pins. Slowly, Nathaniel probed her head, removing the rest to allow her dark tresses to fall down around her shoulders.
“Because, my love, I made a promise. And as a man of my word, I intend to stay with you for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health. But most of all I intend to cherish you for the wonderful woman that you are.”
