Page 32 of The Iron Earl

To her credit, her feet stayed in place. Just being close to escape was enough to halt her instinct to flee.

Interesting.

“You heard what I said by the fire, didn’t you?” Her words came out small, tired.

His fingers stilled, his pinky set on a bump of her spine. “I did.”

“Then you already know the answer to the question.”

“Your stepfather?”

She looked back to him. “Yes. Life was…difficult. And it was about to become more so.”

“Why?”

“He had bartered me away to a man he partners with.”

“Falsted sold you?” The words whispered from his mouth.

“Whereas I never knew what would set my stepfather to anger or when, the man he sold me to has had no quandary in telling me exactly what he plans to do to me. How he will rip me to shreds.” She visibly shuddered. “This was my last chance to escape before I was forced to marry him.”

Hell. That bloody blackguard. Of course Falsted would set a monster onto his stepdaughter. “You’ve tried to escape before?”

She nodded, a dark cloud shadowing her eyes before she turned forward, her look evading him. “Twice. Both times I was by myself, and I was quickly found.”

Lachlan cleared his throat, his fingers quick on the last three buttons up the back of the dress. “Then I daresay it was with luck that we met in the Wolfbridge gardens.”

Her shoulders lifted in a heavy sigh and she smoothed down the front of the dark wool dress against her stomach.

For a long moment she was silent, and then her lips pulled inward as she turned her face slightly toward him.

Yet her eyes avoided him.

“It wasn’t luck, Lachlan. I must confess I planned my approach of you from the moment you stepped foot into the duke’s castle.”

{ Chapter 8 }

Several heartbeats passed before Evalyn found the nerve to fully turn to Lachlan and risk a glance at his face. She wholly expected to see wrath like she’d never known in his eyes.

Instead, she was met with curious hazel eyes. Almost a grin along the edges of his mouth.

His eyebrow arched. “You planned it?”

“I am sorry.” She shook her head slightly, sloughing off his odd reaction to her confession. “I have been meaning to tell you since the first day, but there has not been an opportunity. I have quite despised my actions in how I had to trap you into taking me with you.”

“You trapped me?”

“I did—splitting my dress, threatening a forced marriage. But there was no other way for it.”

“Because of Falsted selling you?” His tongue curled around her stepfather’s name, almost vicious.

“Yes. Again, I apologize, yet I must admit to the fact that I would have done the exact same thing given another chance.” The edges of her eyes crinkled in a cringe. “I understand the brunt of the ill-will you must hold against me. I will happily work in another household once we get to your estate, if you would be so kind as to refer me to a suitable post.”

His right cheek lifted in a half smile, but he said nothing.

“What?”

“If anything, my respect for you just increased tenfold, Evalyn.”

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