She gave a half-hearted shrug, intent onpitching stones in the surf. “You’d think I was silly.”
“Nothing about you is silly,” hechallenged.
Silence as thick as wet sand oozed betweenthem. Alexandra pitched stones into the sea with greaterrapidity.
“When I was a girl, I saw a lady get marriedin a neighboring village. She had a beautiful bridal gown, so regaland fine, and roses and lilies in her bouquet. There was a prettycoach pulled by two dancing white horses. To have a fairy talewedding.” A wistful expression of longing covered her lovelyface.
“Why?” He had always loathed such affairs asnothing but pomp and circumstance. Yet he hated the despair etchedin her voice when all he wanted to do was pull her into his armsand soothe her. Hands at his sides, he stood, patiently listeningwhile watching her eyes gloss over with moisture. To speak couldbreak the fragile hold she had on her emotions.
She shrugged. “I suppose it is every girl’sdream but mine is more important.”
“Why is that?”
She stopped throwing stones, dropping themone by one to the ground. “Remember the Cornett sisters? My name issmeared. Just for once, I’d like to be someone special.”
His hands fisted with anger at what hadhappened to her in her village. To be an outcast. He’d do anythingto eradicate the cruel ghosts of her past.
“There is something I want more thananything else in the world.”
She continued to surprise him. Just when hethought he knew all there was to know, she revealed another layeryet to be peeled away. What else had happened beyond the guilt shesuffered from the loss of her surrogate mother, Molly?
“So many words get lost. They stay in mythroat and lose their courage, wandering aimlessly until they areswept away like dead seaweed on an outgoing tide. I wish to ignoreit, but how can I hide from something that will never go away?” Shegave him a tremulous smile. “As a child, I loved to climbtrees.”
Trees? What did climbing trees have to dowith anything?
“I was nine summers, it was such a fine day.The sun was glorious. I climbed higher and higher, immune to dangeras children so frequently are, just to get a bird’s eye view. Theview at the top was like a heady aphrodisiac, the tree so alive Icould feel it breath, the winds scented with coming rain swishedand swayed the branches. I was so mesmerized, I barely heard thebranches crack….and then…falling. And darkness.”
Alexandra scrubbed her hands over her face.“I drifted in and out of consciousness, as if in a dream. Mollycrying. Samuel wringing his hat. The doctor shaking his head. Mollyhad labored for three days, despairing if I’d survive, her expertnursing skills, bringing me back. I survived, but I learned I’dnever be able to have children.”
She turned her gaze on him, would knowinstantly he’d see differently. He’d see her not as a fertile womanwho could bear children, but as a…spinster. When he didn’t speakfor full minute, tears pricked at the corner of her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice a littlehoarse.
I’m sorry.Numbness overcame her. Herknees buckled and she sank into the sand. She covered her face withher hands, unable to see the look in his eyes. She was sorry, too,but that didn’t change the facts. “I-I know what it means, so don’tfeel sorry for me. I don’t need anyone’s pity.
He pulled her up and into his arms and shetilted her chin upward, unable to discern the darkness in his eyes.More than anything she wanted to melt into the warm comfort of him,wanted to be all the things she knew she would never be. She couldnever be the woman he needed.
“Do you pity me?”
She pulled back. “Of course not.”
Good. Because your injury was the result ofan accident and out of your control…as was my punch that killed myadversary.”
Her heart melted with his words. Justlooking at him made her tremble, making her yearn for things only ahusband had the right to offer. His large hand held her face andgently, his calloused fingers brushed the wetness away, his touchalmost unbearable in its tenderness. His hands slipped into herhair and brought her closer.
“I have wanted to confide in someone, butthe stigma—”
“Never could I think less of you,Alexandra.”
Nicholas’s mouth descended on hers and herbody started at the first brush of his warm lips.
“I was so ashamed.”
“You are very brave to have shared withme.”
Her body came alive as his lips pressedagainst hers. The heat. It was not just her cheeks that burned. Shewas sipping liquid fire. It flowed over her tongue and down herthroat and spread through her entire body. She leaned into him.
“For so long, I have carried that burd
