Charlotte’s chest tightened at the emotion in his eyes. There was fear there still, but also something deeper now. Something vulnerable.
He rested his forehead briefly against her knee. “I have been a fool.”
“You have been scared; I understand that now,” she said.
“That does not excuse the way I treated you.”
Charlotte’s fingers slipped gently into his dark hair. “You were trying to protect yourself.”
“And in doing so, I hurt you instead.” His voice roughened. “I pushed you away because I thought distance would spare me pain. Yet these last days without you have been the worst I have endured in years.”
Her eyes stung unexpectedly.
Victor rose slowly to his feet again. “When you had gone to your family, I told myself it was for the best. That this marriage could return to being practical and orderly.” He laughed bitterly. “Instead, I wandered this house like a damned ghost.”
Charlotte’s heart squeezed painfully.
“And today…” He cupped her cheek carefully. “When I heard there had been a carriage accident near Saville Road, I thought God had finally decided to punish me completely.”
“Victor…I do not think that… ”
“No, let me say it.” His voice trembled slightly. “I have spent half my life believing that loving people doomed them. I convinced myself that if I remained distant enough, careless enough, then loss could never ruin me again.”
Charlotte reached for his hand.
He held it tightly. “But you ruined all of that.”
A watery laugh escaped her. “What a romantic declaration.”
His lips twitched faintly. “You know what I mean.”
“I do,” she said.
Victor exhaled slowly before speaking again. “I blamed myself for my parents’ deaths for so many years that the guilt became part of me. I could not imagine bringing children into this world only to lose them too. Or…” His voice dropped. “To fail them.”
Charlotte’s heart broke for the lonely little boy he had once been.
“You were a child,” she whispered firmly. “You did not cause that accident.”
“I know that here.” He touched his temple bitterly. “But convincing the rest of me has proven rather difficult.”
Charlotte stepped closer until their bodies nearly touched. “Healing does not happen all at once.”
His gaze softened.
“But you came for me today,” she said quietly. “Despite your fear.”
“I would cross through hell itself for you.”
Her breath caught sharply at the fierce sincerity in his voice.
Victor touched his forehead gently against hers again. “When I saw you standing there unharmed, all I could think was that I loved you too much to lose you.”
Charlotte’s eyes widened.
He closed his eyes briefly as though finally surrendering to something inevitable. “I love you, Charlotte. God help me, I am entirely and hopelessly in love with you.”
The words hit her with such force that tears immediately filled her eyes.
