The way she was looking at him. It could give a man hope.
“How did you get it back?”
She wasn’t beating about the bush. They both knew how Doyle had come to have it, and it wasn’t all that worth discussing. “Turns out Doyle wasn’t too keen on living out his final years on the other side of the world.”
“You didn’t only rescue your ring.”
“The ring wasn’t the important part.”
She drew in a deep breath and began speaking, unsteady yet determined. “I thought an eel was all I was or ever would be. So, when Doyle approached me a year ago and told me I would have to start paying taxes to him in order to keep my reputation and business, it felt terrible, but fitting.”
“It was all you knew.”
She nodded. “Then you came along, and we had to pull a job to secure Rafe. But I knew one-for-one wasn’t all there was to it. So, I went to Doyle without you.” She swallowed. “He’d planned on keeping Rafe under his control, even as your son lived with you.”
“Ah.”
“I couldn’t let it happen. It was as if Doyle had stepped over a line I didn’t know existed.”
“So you offered yourself in Rafe’s stead.”
Her eyes shone with unshed tears. “But, then, you rescued me. You freed me from my past.”
“A small payment for what you gave me.”
“What did I give you?”
“A future, Hortense.” His heart couldn’t take much more. That she’d sacrificed herself for his son, for him… “You are more than someone like Doyle could ever understand.”
A tear fell down her cheek, and she swiped it away impatiently. “You asked me how long it would take.”
“How long what would take?” Jamie grew suddenly wary.
“For me to know if what was between us was genuine.”
He chose to nod instead of speak. His voice would give away all the longing that had been building inside him for weeks.
“One month.”
Here it was. The moment he’d been dreading since he’d watched her leave. She was here for her freedom. “I see. I’ve had annulment papers drawn up.”
Her eyes went wide. “Annulment papers?” She looked utterly crestfallen. “Oh, of course.”
A current of panic streaked through him. He’d bungled something. Now all he wanted was to make it right. He would start at the beginning. “What did it take one month for you to know?”
Somehow, he’d drawn within a few feet of her. So close he could reach out and caress her cheek.
Watery blue eyes stared up at him, open and vulnerable. “That what we felt—feel—was—is—genuine.”
How was it possible she was speaking the only words he wanted to hear?
“When Papa and Maman died,” she said in an uncharacteristic rush, her words all but tripping over themselves, “and I was taken to the workhouse, I lost faith in the workings of a benevolent universe. My time spent with Doyle, and even my years as Nick’s spy, only reinforced the view that nothing good lasted forever.”
“What other choice did you have? You had to survive.”
“But life has to be about more than survival to be truly lived. I never understood that until I met you.” Her tongue swiped nervously across her bottom lip. “I’ll never have faith in the world. I’ll always see its dark side before I recognize its light.”
Jamie was no longer able not to touch her. He took her hands, warm and slick with nerves, and squeezed, when all he wanted was to wrap his arms around her and protect her from the world that had tried to defeat her.
