That was when the tears started to fall.
He surged up and in, gathering her in his arms and positioning them under the bedclothes. Sorcha whined. Blake burrowed into his body.
“Th-the last time I saw her, I s-s-slapped her,” she sobbed into his skin.
“I ken, darling. Dinnae think of that now.”
“Oh God,” she moaned, pushing closer to him.
“I hate this for you, baby,” he whispered.
“M-me too. I hate it too, Dair,” she pushed out through weeping.
He held her.
She cried for a long time.
So long, she fell asleep doing it.
He held her longer, and when she didn’t move for some time, with extreme caution, he turned out the bedside lamp, called loving words to his dog, listened to his girl settle on the floor beside Blake, and he pulled the covers up further over his woman.
As for himself, he did not want Helena Coddington-Sharp dead, but he wasn’t upset she was. She was a shite mother who did harm to both of her girls. She was a shite woman who willfully did harm to a marriage. She was simply a shite woman.
She would be missed by very few, if any.
Dair had no doubt that the best future scenario between Blake and her mother was a détente. They would never build the mother-daughter relationship she might wish they had.
But now, that option wasn’t open to her and the last time she saw her mother was not a good memory in the slightest.
And now, Dair was going to have to phone his father and let him know this happened.
As well as tell his mother and his sister.
More, now Blake was the Marchioness of Norton.
She was a peer of the English realm.
She’d just inherited a vast estate, multiple properties, a complicated portfolio, and massive bank accounts.
Her life had just changed irrevocably.
And his life did too.
Chapter 14
Treverton
Dair
* * *
Dair turned their rental car through the open wrought iron gates affixed to dual stone plinths topped with urns and onto the sand-colored gravel drive that led to Treverton Manor, Blake’s ancestral home.
He’d had a busy morning, booking their flights to Bristol, packing, making uncomfortable calls.
His mother was on a plane.
His sister was not, and she was shocked at the news, but mostly she was worried for Blake.
