She sniffled. “Everything between us moved so quickly. It was a mere span of weeks between our first meeting and the day we wed.”
“I shouldn’t have jumped to judgment so quickly.” His voice was grim.
She well understood why. They had lost so much time. Had hurt each other so desperately. And it had all been for naught.
“I am to blame as well,” she said, tilting her head back to hold his gaze. “If I had told you about Henry, all of this could have been avoided.”
“No.” His voice was firm and hoarse, bordering on harsh. “I am solely to blame. If I had confronted you the moment that I saw you embracing him, then I would have known he was your half brother instead of your lover.”
How she wished he had.
Months of anguish.
It had taken nearly losing him to unlock the truth.
“Why did you not?”
He shook his head, a muscle clenching in his jaw. “I had convinced myself that your father had denied a match between the two of you because of the potential scandal of a marquess’s daughter marrying a footman, and that you had decided to marry me instead, even if your heart belonged to another.” He closed his eyes for a moment, looking as if he were in pain, before he continued. “I am sorry, Sybil. So very sorry for what I’ve done. I have no good excuse, save that I’m a fool and that I allowed something that happened in my past to unduly influence me.”
“What do you mean, something in your past?”
His countenance hardened. “I was to be married once, years ago. She was a widow with far more experience than I had. She swore to me that she loved me, and I fancied myself in love with her… Until I discovered her in bed with one of my supposed friends.”
She gasped. “How horrible. You must have been devastated.”
“I was. I know now that she did me a favor, and thank Christ I learned who she truly was before I married her.” He hesitated before continuing. “But when I saw you in your half brother’s arms, embracing him, it was as if that old betrayal had come back, only tenfold. Because I never cared for her the way I care for you. The way Iloveyou.”
There it was again, that wondrous word.
That word she’d thought she would never hear from his lips.
That word she’d feared she would forever be denied.
Love.
Everettlovedher.
And she loved him, too.
But she couldn’t lie to herself. Knowing he had spent months believing she had betrayed him hurt. How could it not? He had been willing to believe that she was in love with someone else, that she had dishonored their marriage vows, that she shared a bed with him whilst longing for another.
However, she could also understand his haste in misunderstanding and his own hurt, particularly knowing now what he had shared about his past. He had been deceived before. Had been about to marry a woman who had lied to him and manipulated him, claiming to love him whilst sharing his friend’s bed.
“Can you forgive me, Sybil?” he rasped, as if reading her thoughts. “I can understand if you don’t. I’ve been a beast to you. Worse than a beast, in fact. I’ve been perfectly wretched, thinking the worst of you, leaving you in Riverdale Abbey. All I can say is that I’m sorry and I swear that I will spend the rest of my life proving myself to you and trying to earn your trust.”
Sybil realized she had a choice. She could cling to her hurt and her anger. She could rage and rail against him for the way he had believed the worst of her.
But the fire had changed her.
They could have died today. And Verity’s recovery was still tentative at best. She had been badly injured. Life was too precious to waste.
Lovewas too precious to waste.
“I forgive you,” she told him.
“You do?”
“I do. And I love you.”
