“Your mother and brother are worried about you.”
“Let them be worried. They’ve brought this on themselves. What did they think I would do? Strip naked for these ladies and show off my body?”
“This isn’t about your body. It is about your heart. The girl who deserves to win your heart is the one who will love all of you, and will accept everything about you.”
“I did not realize my Miss Temple of Virtue was also an expert on matters of love. Look at you,” he said softly. “You are a little bird with a broken wing. How could they send you to me? What if I had been blinded by rage and hurt you?”
“You never would.”
“Do not be so sure, Ailis. I am not a nice man.”
“I disagree. I think you are honorable, caring, and protective to the very core. Anyone who really knows you would not give a fig about your scars. They would cherish you for the sum of who you are.”
She was going to cry if she said anything more, for she could not bear to see the anguish in his eyes, dark eyes that hid years of pain and torment.
“Wouldyoulove me like that, Ailis?”
She closed her eyes. “I already do. Is it not obvious? I never meant for it to happen. I tried so hard not to fall in love with you. But my heart had other ideas. I am so deeply and desperately in love with you. That ismytorment.”
Her admission must have taken him aback.
“Ailis,” he said in a raspy whisper, and caressed her cheek.
“There it is,” she said, keeping her eyes closed because she did not have the courage to open them and see the pity in his. “My fate is to love you and know you will never reciprocate. I never intended to tell you. I would have been happy keepingsilent and maintaining our friendship. It would have been enough for me, I think. Ten kisses and a lasting bond of friendship.”
“We are only up to kiss number seven.”
Her eyes flew open. “And now that I have confessed my feelings for you, are you going to end this game?”
“It was never really a game, was it?”
“I don’t know.” She took a deep breath. “Will you show me what the others saw…when Viola caught you in your bedchamber?”
“No, Ailis. It isn’t a pretty sight.”
“But that is precisely the point. Now that everyone youdon’ttrust has seen you, why hide the truth from me?”
“Is it just morbid curiosity on your part?”
“You know it isn’t. I want to prove to you that real friends would not care.”
“All right, but do not say you weren’t warned.”
She watched as he slowly removed his jacket, cravat, and vest, then paused a moment to give her a final chance to stop him before he took off his shirt. His expression oozed pain, so much of it that she almost told him not to take that final step.
But to stop now would be a setback for him.
Despite the turmoil roiling in her heart, she said nothing.
With a soft groan, he removed his shirt in one fluid motion to reveal the damage he had hidden for so long.
Ailis’s heart broke.
He stood before her, unflinching and steady as a stone monolith. “There you have it, Miss Temple of Virtue. This is what all the fuss was about.”
He had scars all over his arms and partly along his back. He had told her that his legs were just as badly marked, but she was not going to suggest he drop his trousers, since that wasobviously a step too far. Merely removing his shirt and giving her a view of his naked upper torso was scandalous enough.
But she was not thinking of scandal, only of the agony he must have endured that left him so scarred.
