Page 106 of The Dravenhearst Brides
“Don’t call the physician,” she whispered. “Please don’t send me away. I couldn’t bear to leave the house, to leave you.”
“Who said anything about sending you away?” He reached for her again, trying to bundle her in his arms. Again, it felt restraining. Such large arms, capable of great force, great harm. Eleanor quaked in her mind.
“Let me go,” she shrieked, kicking out. “I won’t go!”
“Margot!” He scooted back from her, shocked. A new level of concern bloomed in his face. “Margot, you’re…you’re ill. I can’t believe I didn’t notice sooner. I failed you.”
She began to cry then. He hadn’t failed; she had.
“I don’t”—she hiccuped—“want the physician.”
He fell silent, watching her cry. Agony reared, his face crumpling like a little boy’s. “I can’t stand by and do nothing. I won’t. I’ve made this mistake before, Margot.”
Before.
Margot took a deep, shuddering inhale. She needed to say it. She needed to be brave enough, trust him to understand. No more hiding.
“Something strange is happening to me,” she said slowly. “But it’s not something a physician can help with, and you know it, Merrick.”
He did know. Fear was written across his face, in every worry line.
“It’s the house,” she concluded. “Something in the walls. I already have sadness within me, and this house makes everything worse. It’s untenable. It’s swallowing me.”
He didn’t hesitate. “Then we’ll go. We’ll leave. Together. The legislative dinner is tomorrow in Louisville. We’ll go, and we won’t come back.”
She nodded, relief seeping in.
When he spoke again, his voice was small. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you leave sooner?”
Because leaving here means leaving you.
Of one thing she was certain, Merrick wouldn’t leave his distillery. Not for long, at least. He would always come back to this place. If she couldn’t find a way to be here, to live here with him, where would that leave them?
She avoided his eyes. “I didn’t realize what was happening.” It was only half a lie, better than most of the others she’d told of late.
“Really?” He tipped her chin up and took a deep breath. “Margot, did you maybe…did you stay for me?”
Naked vulnerability in his eyes, enough to take her breath away. This man who had been abandoned time and time again. Who never believed himself worth staying for.
There was only one answer. If anyone in this whole wide world deserved the truth, it was Merrick Dravenhearst.
“Yes.”
His lips tightened.
“I stayed for you, and I would do it again,” she said, trying for bravery.
She waited for the relief, for the love to sink in.
But it didn’t.
His face collapsed in pain. He shuttered his eyes.
“Merrick?”
“You shouldn’t have.” He shook his head and rose from the bed, pulling away from her. “You stayed for me, and I didn’t even notice you were hurting. I’m not worth staying for, Margot.”
And with that, he departed the room, taking her heart with him.
