“Thank you, you can leave now. I will see Miss Spencer to her family safely, Mr. Greggor.”
“You will not—” He put his hand over her mouth, stopping Evie from speaking.
“Very well,” Mr. Greggor said. “I know you’re Lord Hamilton and have helped today in getting our girls back, so I know you’ll see Miss Spencer home safe.”
Evie tried to push the hand aside, but it didn’t budge. She then watched Mr. Greggor turn his cart and roll away. Opening her mouth, she bit him.
“Ouch!” Anthony shook his hand, releasing her.
Evie started walking.
“Evie, wait!”
“I don’t want to wait. I want to go back to my family, but you sent my ride a-away.” She could hear the hysteria in her voice. Evie needed sleep to be at her best; she was not that now.
She’d had a night of utter bliss with this man, and then he’d sent her away with harsh words to be kidnapped. There was only so much she could take before she broke down, and Evie was fast reaching her limit.
“I’m sorry.” His hand touched her shoulder lightly. “Please, Evie, stay and listen to me.”
The words had her stopping, but she didn’t look at him.
“I have no right to ask you to do this considering what you’ve been through and that some of the blame for that lies at my feet.”
“If they had not taken me last night, then they would have tried again, my lord. You are not to blame for what happened to me. What you said before I was kidnapped, however, I lay entirely at your feet.” She addressed her words to the road before her.
“You were taken because Cavendish and I have a past.”
She said nothing to that. He was so close now, she could feel him behind her, just inches separating them. All it would takewas for her to lean back, and she could rest on that solid chest, and she knew he would hold her… but no, she would not weaken now.
“You were right. I was a coward, Evie. It terrified me when I realized I’d hurt you. What I could have done to you.”
“But you did not.”
“Evie, please look at me.”
She took a deep steadying breath and released it before turning.
“My life was hell at Blackwood Hall. Cavendish, Calthorpe, Greville, and the housemaster abused and tormented me, Jamie, and Toby. There were others, but those were the ones who seemed hell-bent on bullying us.
The look in his eyes told her his scars from that time ran deep. Evie’s heart ached for the young boy who had suffered and the man who still carried the pain, but she didn’t speak. He needed to tell her the whole of it if they were to make a life together.
“My aunts saved us. One day when they visited, I broke down and told them everything that was going on. So they confronted our housemaster and told him they would return every week from that day onward. If their nephew and his friends suffered anymore, there would be hell to pay.”
“How lucky you were to have them,” Evie said. “They must love you very much to do what they did.”
“I would do anything for them. The years preceding that had been the worst of my life.”
He stood there solemn-faced, no hat, amber eyes locked on her, and she could do nothing to stop the flood of love she felt for this man.
“I have nightmares, Evie. That was what happened last night.”
“I understand,” she said.
He closed the space between them and took her hands in his. “Can you forgive me for what I said after we made love? I reacted and hurt you, something I will never forgive myself for.”
“Thank you for telling me why.”
This time it was he who exhaled. “I thought I suffered back then, but knowing you were out there somewhere and I could not reach you has been the worst day of my life, Evie. I realized that if I did not find you, I would spend my life in hell.”
