Amelia’s throat was thick. She had never had a true family, and it had been a painful thing for her. But now, as she stroked a tear away from Lizzie’s cheek, she felt exactly as she had described to her. Like she was home.
And that was not something she might have found if she had married Aaron Walters as she’d once thought she wanted.
“I’m glad, too,” she said.
Lizzie squeezed her hand and slid from the room. Amelia stood alone for a moment, and then she hurried from the library and down the long, winding halls toward Hugh’s study. Right now she needed to see him. Touch him. Comfort him and let herself be comforted.
She pushed the door open without knocking and found him seated at his large, mahogany desk. He had a quill in hand and he was bent over a ledger, ticking off boxes in a seemingly endless sea of columns. His gaze was very focused and his mouth drawn down in a stern frown.
She froze at the sight. He had smiled so little when she first met him, it had been easy to cast him as a villain. Cold and calculating. But now she understood him better. The man she had married was a serious person, yes. A past where he’d been forced to hide any imperfection and a youth stolen by sudden responsibility had made him so.
But that only made him stronger. He had been through so much and come out the kind of man who would do anything for those he loved. And since he didn’t smile often, when she was able to coax a smile to his lips, that made it more of a triumph.
She saw her life laid out before her in an instant. A life where she would never want for anything, thanks to this man. A life where her mission would be to make his days and nights easier. To love who he loved with the same fierceness he did.
And that sounded like heaven.
“Did you come to gawk at me or talk?” he said, glancing up from the ledger with one of those rare and wicked smiles.
She laughed a little and then reached back to close the door. “I was distracted by gawking, I admit. There is much to gawk at.”
He arched a brow and slowly pushed from the desk to his full height, tracking her every move as she came across the room to him. “I like where this is going,” he drawled.
She reached him, looking up into his dark eyes. Seeing the pain he always carried with him and understanding it all the more after today. She let out her breath in a shuddering sigh and then wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight as she smoothed her hand over his back gently.
His arms came around her after a beat of hesitation and he rested his chin on the crown of her head. For a moment they stood like that, bound in a new way.
“Not that I’m complaining,” he said, his voice muffled in her hair. “But what brought this on?”
She pulled away a fraction and looked up at him once more. “I know about Lizzie, Hugh. I know everything.”
Chapter Eighteen
Hugh jerked from the warm and comforting circle of Amelia’s embrace and staggered back across the room in horror. “What?”
Her eyes went wide and confused at his powerful reaction. “All is well, Hugh—I do not judge her for it, nor you.”
He stared. Did not judge him? How could that be possible when he had deceived her about this very subject?
And then he realized how. Lizzie might have told her something about what had happened to her…
But she hadn’t given Amelia the name of her betrayer.
“She told you abouthim,” he whispered, his voice sounding harsh in the quiet room.
“She did. Oh, Hugh, I have never hated another person so much in my life. Your sister is so sweet and so innocent…that some bastard would take advantage in order to access her fortune is beastly.”
He nodded, hardly able to breathe. “Y-yes,” he finally stammered. “She did not say his name to you?”
Amelia shook her head. “No, she did not.”
Hugh caught his breath. He had been lying to this woman, his wife, his love for weeks now. And he’d never wanted to confess what he’d done more than in this unique opportunity.
“Amelia,” he began, shaking from the raw power of his terror at how she would react.
She grabbed for his hand, her warmth seeping into every part of him. “No, Hugh, don’t. Don’t tell me.”
“Why?” he asked.
