Oh.
“Did ye love her then?”
“Of course I loved her.” He tugged on the cuff of his coat. “I wouldn’t have asked her to marry me otherwise. Idiot though I was.”
The words stung.
Leah felt positively winded.
“What did ye love about—”
“Have I not said enough, Leah?” He spun around to face her. “Why do you pick at old wounds that will only cause suffering for me and confusion for you?”
Because if I know why ye loved her, then perhaps I can help ye learn to love me.
Because I want us tae share the weight of our marriage, instead of me supporting the whole of it myself.
“These old wounds still impact our present,” she said instead.
“Very well. Do you want to hear more? The most vicious cut of all?” Fox laughed, a bitter crack of sound. “I should not have been at Coorg. But I was sent to the slaughter—because of Susan, because of Honoria—and dispatched to the front lines. I was deliberately sent to Coorg to die.”
Leah felt the blood drain from her face. “Pardon?”
Surely he didn’t mean—
Had she misheard?
Sent todie?!
Fox fixed her with a desolate look—one so chilled and cold, it stole Leah’s breath as surely as a winter wind off the slopes of Ben Tirran.
“Those whom I loved and trusted sent me to die in Coorg.” His voice was chipped ice. “They didn’t merely discard my affection. They obliterated it. They took my heart and cracked it in a vise.”
“Oh, Fox.”
“And now these same people hold Madeline’s future in their hands. My niece destroyed everything by being conceived, and I ruined everything by refusing to die. We are, the both of us, unwanted dross.”
“Nae.” Leah crossed to him. “You are both so very wanted.” She cupped his face, running a thumb over his cheekbone. “Who are these people who betrayed ye so horrifically?”
He paused, staring at her, eyes drifting down to her lips.
Leah had no trouble following his thoughts.
He was wondering if a kiss would stop her questions.
The truth? It likely would.
He touched her, and she combusted. They were chemistry in action.
Even now, her blood heated, the scritch of his whiskers beneath her palm begged to be stroked, to be soothed.
His head dipped, intent on her lips.
“Please, Fox. Tell me more of the story.” She pressed a staying hand to his chest. “Ye ken I cannae think a straight thought when ye kiss me. I havenae loved ye for twenty years tae be so blissfully distracted.”
The words slipped free without thought. Her adoration of him such a constant in her life, she neglected to guard her tongue.
Leah forgot he did not know.
