“I shan't forgive you for any of this,” she said, and as quick as she could, she rounded her arm around her body and slammed the oil lamp into the side of Jacob's skull.
“AUGH!”
Hope dodged around him as he screamed. She reached the door, but he lunged after her, his hands clawing around her waist.
“Let me go!” she yelled as he fisted his hands in her skirts to keep her from getting away.
Jacob pulled her back, tearing one of her sleeves nearly clean off her gown and tossing her on the straw-filled bed behind them. Hope watched in horror the streams of blood coursing down his face. The glass must have cut him.
“You little bitch!” he seethed.
Flinching, she tried to remember if Jacob had ever cursed in front of her before. He stomped towards her, and Hope instinctively pulled her legs up. In a last-ditch attempt to keep him from reaching her, she had begun to kick with all her might when a voice from somewhere downstairs called her name.
“Hope?”
“Graham?” she whispered to herself before yelling out loud. “GRAHAM!”
Jacob, apparently in a panic, tried to lodge a chair against the door to block any entry, but his efforts were stymied when the entire thing began to creak and break as it was torn off its hinges. Hope scrambled back further onto the bed as Graham busted through the door. His eyes searched her form, and though she didn't think it possible, his furious face contorted even further. He emanated pure rage.
Jacob tried to climb out of the filthy window, but Graham grabbed him and slammed his fist directly into his jaw, holding him up off his feet. Hope screamed, her hands flying up to cover her face in an attempt to hide from the brutality of the scene before her. A thud followed, and Hope peered through her fingers. Graham had dropped Jacob, and she realized he had been knocked unconscious.
Frozen for a moment, Hope stared at Graham’s profile. His chest heaved up and down as he glared down at the heap on the floor. Nostrils flared and a deep set of vertical wrinkles between his brow told her he was furious.
Slowly, his head turned, and his eyes locked with hers. The breath went out of her beneath his gaze. Pushing off the bed to stand on unsteady legs, Hope moved towards him.
“Graham?” she said shakily.
“What the hell were you thinking?” he snapped at her, causing her to freeze. “You could have been raped! Or maimed! He could have bloody well killed you!”
“Graham, I—”
“Have you lost your ever-loving mind? Riding off without anyone knowing where you’ve gone to—”
“Graham, please—”
But he didn’t let her finish. In the next second, Graham grabbed her wrist and hauled her roughly against his chest. A gust of breath escaped her, and before she could speak, his mouth found hers.
Hope’s mind was swimming as his hands roamed gently all over her body. His kiss was deep and desperate and her arms wrapped around his neck, unwilling to let him go. His arms wrapped around her waist and back, lifting her out the door as he backed out of the room.
“Forgive me, Hope,” he begged, his voice raspy as he leaned his forehead against hers. “I should have told you about Belle’s offer from the beginning.” Hope searched his eyes, unsure how to respond. She had planned to be angry and standoffish with him, but all her plans had gone out the window. Instead, she stayed silent—and he continued. “I love you for you,Hope. Not for Lismore, or your inheritance or anything. Just you.”
“I love you too, Graham,” she said softly, planting tiny kisses across his mouth as he sighed.
“Will ye forgive me?”
She paused and looked deep into his eyes.
“I don’t know if I can just yet,” she said. Her words were shaky, but she forced them out. She needed to say them. “But I think I could, with time. I think I will.”
He was quiet for a moment and she worried that she had upset him, when he squeezed her.
“I understand,” he whispered against her mouth. “I do.” Hope’s heart expanded with gratitude. “How long do you think it might take, though? For you to forgive me, I mean.” She nodded, doubtfully, but the look in his eye seemed to edge her on. “Sixty years or so?”
Hope let out a surprised laugh and nodded her head slowly.
“Yes, possibly,” she said as he smiled down at her.
“Good. Then I should like to spend the next sixty years or so in your debt.”
