“I'm sorry.”
“I believe we established that,” Prim said in a light tone.
“Well, by my count, I have several more things to do, apologize for so…”
Prim nodded in understanding. Leah got up and paced up and down her chambers, his fingers through his hair, he loosened his cravat and threw it away, his hand over his face.
It pained her to see him struggle so much just to talk to her face-to-face and express his emotions, his feelings, and his thoughts.
“It's been a long day,” she said with firm softness. “Perhaps it's better to retire and talk about it some other time.”
Leo launched himself before her on his knees, he held her hands in his over her knees, and he looked up into her eyes.
“I know I hurt you. More than once. More than a little. It's just I don't know how to do this.”
He let his head onto her lap incomplete resignation and other trust. He was exposing his vulnerability, perhaps for the first time in his life. Prim smiled and let her fingers go through his hair. When he felt her touch, she looked up again. And this time it was not that boyish mischief that he usually had. It was something that she had never seen in Leo.
“I was… I was nine when my father died. He loved my mother so much, and my mother perhaps loved him even more. I remember this house, this very house was happy. And then he was gone suddenly in an instant.”
“I'm so sorry,” Prim said. “It must have been hard losing a parent so abruptly.”
“It was even worse because I lost both parents. I don't know if you took the boring walk around the gallery of the mansion, but perhaps you noticed how much I look like my father. And so my mother, utterly in love and devoted to him, had to face me every day, a stark reminder of what she had lost. So she left.”
Prim hadn't realized this was what happened between them at such a young age, right at the moment when Leo needed her the most. Perhaps she was too quick to judge his feelings.
“You were just a boy,” she said.
“No, I wasn't anymore. I was a Duke of Mildenhall. And my life from that day on was all about being trained to become really the Duke of Mildenhall. Mrs. Byrne raised me basically.”
“That explains the fear you have each time she walks by.”
“I was lucky to have her in my life, given the circumstances. But she was a little bit heavy on the fish oil.”
Prime chuckled. She had only seen the infamous Duke, the bantering friend, and skilled lover. This was a side of him that she never imagined existed.
“Soon after, my mother got remarried, and she had Aaron. I was forgotten and replaced. As you can imagine, this experience did not help with developing healthy standards on what a real relationship looked like.”
“That is an understatement.”
“So instead of burdening anyone with this, I decided it was safer for all parties involved to not have any relationships.”
“A very solid plan,” Prim smiled.
“It was, and it worked for many years flawlessly. Till one night, I am sitting in my study, minding my own business, when this wild woman barges in.”
“I beg your pardon.”
“How would you describe it?”
“Fair enough, go on.”
“And from that day on these walls I have built…”
“Let me guess. They crumbled.”
“No,” Leo said softly, caressing her cheek. “She's not that kind of woman. She doesn't demolish. She rebuilds.”
Prim leaned into his touch and smiled.
