“Foaling room.”
“There’s hay, a strong animal scent, and a dirt floor.Barn.”
“Besides.” She ignored him. “Iprocured the foaling room. But I don’t want to argue.”
“Well, there’s a first…”
“I’m serious, Rayne. I’mtryingto apologize…but you, as usual, are making things difficult.”
As usual?“For what are you apologizing?”
“For attaching myself to the back of your carriage.” Her eyelids fluttered downward. “For placing you in a terrible position. For everything, from the very first.” Her voice fell. “I should never have accosted you in the library.”
The library?He took a moment to place the scene.
Kiss me, Rayne.
The memory became a phantom in the air as his mind recreated the moment. Markham and Farring had been playing billiards, and Bromton had just left. Rayne had been alone, stewing over Bromton’s betrayal—a friendship that had drastically altered for reasons he still did not understand. Then suddenly, Julia had appeared in her night rail, brown hair loose and cascading down her back.
Breathe.
At first, he’d resisted, even though every fiber of his being had wanted to comply with her request, to feel her open in his arms the way a flower opens to summer’s heat. Instead, he’d marched her up the stairs toward her room. But by the time they’d reached the landing, his want and anger and resentment had shown him the horrible, beautiful symmetry—Bromton had hurt his sister Clarissa, and Julia, as Bromton’s sister-to-be, had just presented the perfect opportunity for him to return the favor.
Breathe.
That kiss had ruined him.
Breathe.
That kiss had transformed him.
Breathe.
And if she’d never made that demand, never placed him in a terrible position, never hopped onto the back of his carriage…
He’d still be that bundle of stewing resentment and not…
Well, a man teetering on the edge of hope.
“I…” Her voice wobbled. “I—I didn’t think. I just acted.”
“Julia—”
“Don’tgo telling me again that you should have known better. Do you think I didn’t see you? Do you think I didn’t know exactly how bitter and hostile you were?”
“Did you?” he asked quietly.
“Of course I did.” She brushed her cheeks. “Have you ever been so overcome, you couldn’t distinguish between fear and excitement?”
He swallowed. “Yes.”
“I wanted to show you how wrong you were. And instead…” Her voice trailed. “You didn’thaveto leave.”
Bromton’s voice rang in his ear.
Go back to The Pillar of Salt, pack your bags, and go home.
Home to my devastated sister?
