She didn’t reply, so he simply held her until he felt her relax. When her cheek rested on his chest, he exhaled.
“Since my father passed, I have never been held by anyone.”
Her words were more a whisper, and his heart ached for the young girl who had needed holding.
“Do you feel able to continue?”
“He was too strong, I could not fight him,” she whispered.
“Beth.” Leo said the word into her hair as he tried to surround her with his body. “It’s not your fault, sweetheart.”
“H-he hurt me.”
She cried then, into his chest, and he had never felt so helpless. Her tears fell silently, and he could do nothing but offer her comfort. To have been violated at such an age…. Leo understood now so much about the woman who sat in his arms. Her dislike of waltzing, the distance she put between herself and men.
“Tell me all of it, Beth.” Leo brushed a kiss on her head. “I want to help you, but to do that I must have the entire story.”
“My father came and found me crying. He held me as you are, and I told him everything. He then said he loved me and would return soon. I never saw him again.”
Leo remembered Nick saying Beth’s father had been killed in a hunting accident.
“It wasn’t a hunting accident that killed him?”
“No, it was him, I know it was. But he disappeared, and my father was found dead. My aunt arrived soon after, and I told her. She said we must tell no one, as nothing good could come of doing so. I’m not entirely sure she believed me anyway, and didn’t put my words down to those of a grieving daughter.”
“She had no right to discard your words.” Leo fought his anger back; she did not need that from him now.
“She was kind to me, Leo, and as time went on and my grief eased, I realized she was most likely right. Who would believe me? My father appeared to have fallen on his gun, and there was no sign of him... that man.”
“But what of this man? Surely you feared he would reappear?”
“My aunt told me he had left for France, and that his sister was desolate. I was relieved he was gone, and tried to put it behind me.”
“You have lived with this until now?”
She nodded, and Leo held her close as they rolled through London.
“And you help those girls because no one helped you, and you know how they are suffering, don’t you, Beth?”
“Yes. I don’t want them to be alone.”
“Do you want me to release you?” Leo said the words as she moved. “Am I frightening you?”
She shook her head. “I’ve never been frightened of you.”
Simple words, yet the relief in hearing them was absolute. It was then he realized that what he felt for this woman was more than he’d ever felt for another.
