Page 15 of The Heart of an Earl

Pity.

It had to be pity.

But he could listen to the crying no more—and at the same time, he couldn’t leave her.

He heaved a silent sigh, then stepped forward. Crawling into the bed behind her, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her into him before she knew what was happening. Before she could resist.

He held her tight to him. That was it. Nothing more.

Holding her against the sobs racking her body.

She stilled for only a moment before a fresh wave of tears came, the quaking of her body harder now that he could feel her muscles along his. Feel the fresh torment each roll sent through her torso, her limbs.

So much anguish that his soul ached for her. For all that she must have lost on that ship. Innocence. Hope. Probably her very sanity.

“Des?” The word choked out between gasps for air.

“Yes?”

She coughed, clearing her throat. “You said you wouldn’t touch me.”

“I lied. I tend to do that. Especially when it’s for a good cause.”

A rough chuckle gurgled through her sobs and her left arm atop the sheet moved downward, clasping onto his arm draped across her belly.

Though her face remained turned away from him, she wasn’t ready for him to leave her be just yet.

He wasn’t ready either.

“As do I—lie.” She drew a shaking breath. “I don’t recall the last true thing I’ve said or done.”

Des stared down at the top of her head. A sliver of moonlight caught an auburn lock bleached by the sun in the braid running along the left side of her head, the shade of it almost white in the glow of the moon.

“I know what it is.”

Her head shook against the pillow. “How could you possibly know that?”

“On thePrimrose.”

Her fingers twitched on the back of his left hand, and it took her a long moment to reply. “Yes?”

“Redthorn struck your mother and she fell to the deck.” He paused.

“Aye, I recall.”

“You dropped to your knees after her, wrapping your arms about her, shielding her. She was trying to protect you and you were trying to protect her. I saw it. Saw what instinct made you do. You were determined to take any blow that was meant for her. Bold and brave without lending fear the slightest margin of strength.” His arm shifted along her side and her fingers tightened around his wrist, holding him in place. “It was purity of heart that sent you to cover her. That was true. It wasn’t a lie.”

Her body froze against him, her breath ceasing. Words came out in a tortured exhale. “It was. It was true.”

“So hold onto that. Fight your way back to that moment in time.” His head lifted slightly from the pillow so he could see the outline of her profile. “I imagine none of this is or will be easy. Your tears alone tell me that. But it is those same tears that prove you’re not lost—not completely. You can find your way back to who you were, because you remember that girl. I remember that girl, that moment.”

Her left hand lifted from his arm, swiping away wetness from her cheeks. “A moment that has haunted me since the day it happened.”

“Me as well.”

“You—the note Redthorn pulled from your hand, the one that said your wife was dead.” Her head didn’t shift to look at him, her gaze staying on the wood planks of the wall.

“Yes?”

---