“As pretty asyou look in any color, I must say I was happy to see you wearing something other than black this morning.” Thomas dropped a kiss on the back of her neck scratching her skin with the beginnings of a beard.
They had not fallen asleep afterwards this time, instead lying together, listening to the crackling fire in the stove. Loretta did not know if it was the shadows or the isolation that invited intimate conversation.
Or perhaps the intimacy of what they’d engaged in. But somehow, she found herself trusting this man more than any other person of her acquaintance, even Millie.
“My soul has felt black. It has been difficult to shed.” Could she tell him?
He fell silent at her words but the rhythm of his breathing comforted her.
“You lost a great deal in a short period of time.” He finally spoke again. “Any person would be deeply affected.”
“But all is not what it seems,” she responded, unable to stifle the tremor that ran through her.
The one matter, the one fact that haunted her life, needed an outlet. She needed desperately to discuss the matter with another human being.
She shouldn’t tell another living soul. It would put her son in danger, and yet, she couldn’t keep it locked inside a moment more. “I did not lose what people thought. I lost Lucas, and Prescott. And I did lose Harold, but not in the way it is believed.”
She twisted around to stare into his eyes. She needed to see some understanding, some acknowledgement. “Harold did not die. Harold ran away, to save his life.” She closed her eyes tightly. Would Thomas hate what she would say? Would he be scathing? Judgmental? “He has the same inclinations his father did.”
So many repercussions to what she said.
She ought not to have told him! Oh, but she had betrayed both Devlin and Sophia by revealing the secret!
“But you love him. He is your son.”
Her eyes flew open at his words. She nodded. “I do. No matter what, no matter who he loves!”
Thomas nodded slowly.
“But no one can ever know! It would ruin everything. Sophia would be ruined! The scandal would never die!”
The man holding her pressed his lips against her forehead. “That’s a mighty big secret for one woman.”
But she shook her head. “Not just me. For Dev and Sophia as well. And whenever I see them, it’s as though it won’t go away. And yet—”
“The boy is your son.” He squeezed her to him.
This.
This reassurance. This sharing of burdens. It was what she’d needed for so very long. “He is very much a man. It took courage for him to do what he did. And when he did it, he released Sophia to be with Dev. He is with the man he loves… at least I believe he is. He wrote once, to explain. He is happy. He is content. He is… safe.”
Thomas simply held her for several moments more. And then finally. “He will remain so.”
And with his reassuring words, Loretta slept peacefully, for the first time in what felt like forever.
Let it Snow
Although the earth was covered with several inches of snow the next morning, the storm had indeed passed and the sun was shining and sparkling off the tiny crystals of ice.
Loretta had entered an alternative world from anything she’d ever experienced. She and Thomas had made love, shared what remained of their basket of food, drank wine, and then made love again.
He’d slipped her chemise back over her head after the last time, citing the cold as the reason, and then managed to keep the fire burning throughout the night.
Even now, the occasional popping sound emitted from the stove. He must have risen recently to stoke it and add more wood.
One needed never worry about life’s necessities with Thomas Findlay at hand.
Ah… but today. What might today bring?
