Her heart, that traitorous organ, yearned to go to him to offer comfort.
She fixed things. She couldn’t seem to stop wanting to do that. Even for people who destroyed her.
“I didn’t know you were here,” he said stiffly. “My apologies for the intrusion, Miss Woodville. I’ll leave.”
But when he turned away, every cell of her body howled in protest.
He froze as if he’d heard her soul crying out to him. He hesitated.
Then she watched his shoulders move in a sort of resigned breath.
He pivoted to face her.
“You’re upset,” he said quietly.
That was a significant understatement.
“Nonsense,” she said firmly. She refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing how thoroughly emotionally ravaged she was. But her voice shook.
He steeply arched a skeptical brow.
“It wasn’t my intent to embarrass you,” he said evenly. “And I’m very sorry if I did.”
Ugh.That careful, formal tone.
“I wasn’t embarrassed.”
That won her an almost impatient look. As if lying bored him.
“And there’s nothing shameful about the choice you made,” he continued.
She merely stared at him.
She saw him tense to leave.
“I know,” she said swiftly. “But the fact thatyoulost your nerve doesn’t surprise me a bit, Mr. Marchand.”
At once, that familiar, challenging light flared in his eyes.
“I suppose I ought to have known that you wouldn’t keep your word,” she pressed on recklessly. “For all your big talk about never lying, cheating, or stealing. Once a rogue and all that. The joke is on me.”
He pressed his lips together. His eyes were both flinty and wounded. She’d hit her mark.
“You’re hurt,” he claimed correctly.
“Wrong again, Marchand.”
He didn’t honor this lie with a response.
Tension tugged at his eyes, about his mouth. He was suffering.
“Was it because of Francis?” she blurted. “Are you... are you... punishing me because of...” Her voice broke.
He looked tormented now. “No. Absolutely not.”
“Then why—”
“Because. I.Can’t, Ginny,” he said slowly and evenly, laying all of those words down like bricks. This time there was a warning in his voice.
