But where would she go?
I must truly be going mad!
With a frustrated sigh, she instead began to trudge her way down the slope towards him, darting from tree to tree until she reached the lower bank. Aaron looked up at her. He had a leaf caught in his hair. She laughed at his comically dishevelled appearance and reached out, gently plucking it free.
“Oh, damnation,” he said without heat, blushing.
“I’m sorry I caused you to take a tumble like this…”
“If I can get you back to Caerleon with me, it will be worth it,” he sighed.
“Do you… truly need me?”
He opened his mouth to reply, but she continued.
“I don’t think anyone has ever really needed me. Not since my parents. I was a burden to my Aunt and Uncle and...”
Aaron stood, wincing in pain, and placed a finger across her lips, silencing her gently.
“You were not a burden to your Aunt and Uncle. I saw firsthand how they treated you. They were cruel. That can never be considered your fault.”
“They always told me so,” she sniffed, holding his finger and placing a kiss upon it.
She felt bold in doing so, and it thrilled her. His finger pulled downward, and her lower lip drooped. Then he cried out as he put weight on his ankle and thumped back heavily. Catherine tried to support him but ended up falling onto his lap.
They chuckled at the blunder for a moment, and then he murmured, “My father told me the same thing. That I was useless. That I was a failure and a burden. That I was not worthy of the Dukedom. And then he exiled me.”
Catherine gasped audibly. “He…exiledyou?” she said in astonishment.
Aaron nodded once, settling his arms about her, holding her close. Her face was inches from his, her arms about his neck. He gazed at her absently, as though seeing more than just her face.
“Expelled me from Caerleon with the clothes on my back and nothing else.”
“When!” she exclaimed.
He shrugged with one shoulder. “After you knew me, I suppose. Long after. I survived in spite of him.”
Catherine watched him, seeing the grief that he kept bottled up, the anger at his father’s words. She wanted to help him release it. To exorcise it somehow.
“We both hold onto far too much, I suppose,” she murmured, “from our pasts.”
“The past is dead. I would hold onto none of it,” he declared vehemently.
“It seems you have already let go of much. I must admit, it perplexed me when those memories were always so precious to me...”
She felt him stiffen against her, sensed the walls rising again, and hurried on, “But now that I know more, I see why. I… I think I understand a little.”
Slowly, he relaxed. “Isolation has been my life for so long that it has become a habit. Even with my servants.” He paused. “It took me just today to discover that... a kind word has probably gone much further than barked orders ever have. It has made me feel foolish for not having realized it sooner. I suppose when you’re a hammer…”
This man is not Aaron Tarnley!
The thought crystallized with sudden and startling clarity. Hecouldn'tbe the boy she’d known. The differences had been piling up; they were impossible to ignore any longer.
And yet…
She was still drawn to him. Still wanted him,whoeverhe was. No matter who he was, he had gone out of his way to save her. A stranger for all intents—if her suspicions were true.
Her fingers combed through his soft raven hair without conscious thought, unable to stop touching him now that he was close. He looked up at her, his expression somewhere between grumpy and exhausted. Not angry. Just... weary of the world.
