She broke his concentration, and he turned to gaze at her.
“Please, forgive me for everything that has happened. If I could go back and change it, I would.” Her lips quivered, and she dropped to her knees, tears streaming down her face. “I expect nothing from you, but beg your acknowledgement that this was not some ploy to hurt you—that I am a victim of my father’s unscrupulous need to control me and everything else in his life. Tis why my mother died so young, she could not abide his wicked nature, his jealousy, and withered heart.”
Her beauty could illuminate the darkest place, including the recesses of his cold heart. How could he deny her request, her selfless nature? It had taken unusual courage to show up here by herself, risking her reputation and pride to deliver the truth to him, to offer her love a last time…
Unable to resist her innocence and vulnerability, James sank to his knees in front of her, wrapping his protective arms about her, cradling her against his body, soothing her with whispered words of encouragement.I love you. You will always be mine. None could replace you. Feeling you in my arms again…
He removed the pins from her thick hair, and it tumbled down her back in waves, black as night and so lovely. He buried his face in it, breathing in her essence, loving her more in that moment than ever before. How could he have misjudged her so cruelly, so selfishly. He had been looking for someone to blame his suffering on.You are a coward, he berated himself. Grotesque on the inside. Undeserving of her.
And then, a scraping sound upon the glass of the French doors made them both sit up and stare together in their direction.
“What the devil?” James asked in utter shock.
“Is that…” Raven looked up at him, unable to finish her thought.
Chapter Six
The chamber grewcolder in the moment James beheld the outline of a dark creature staring through the glass on his French doors. Though its identity remained unknown to him from such a distance, he was compelled by his protective nature to see exactly what threatened their safety. His lady, fearful and pleading him to stay beside her, squeezed his hand and tried to pull him back.
“Please, James. Do not go. Leave to the darkness what belongs to the night. In here, light and love has lifted our spirits to a place we have never known together.”
Yes.His faith had been restored, love seeping into the shadowed crevices of his frozen heart. All the more reason to defend his lady, his home, his own life. Darkness was an unwelcome guest, and any creature that crawled about in the night and sought entry to his sanctuary was unwelcome.
“Stay here,” he gently commanded, rising to his feet, still cradling her hand in his.
“But…”
He let go of her fingers and raised his hand to silence her. “Tis better to know than not.” He edged closer to the doors, wary and anxious.
“James!”
“Do not be afraid,” he tried to reassure her, squinting to see through the frosted glass.
Something scraped against the pane with more force, insistent.
His gut knotted as he reached for the latch, instinct telling him to retreat, to ignore the noise. But alas, on this night of all nights, having found his heart again, James would not be denied.
The door screeched open, and snow blasted inside. The wind whistled, and suddenly, the chamber went dark and still. A frightening silence followed, and James whirled around, searching for her, feeling as if a part of him had withered and died. He could not see her, could not see anything. There were no embers in the hearth, just inky blackness. Not even the sound of his own breathing filled the stillness.
Was he even alive? Breathing?
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
He faced the open doors again, and something screeched menacingly.
James crossed the threshold to the outside. And there, wings outstretched, black eyes focused on him, talons gripping the railing of his balcony, the great raven cawed again and again, unrelenting and with a purpose James could not guess.
A raven.
A bad omen.
A curse.
A premonition.
