Page 139 of The Earl She Once Saved

Her face changed.

“Yes,” she whispered. “And the dream.”

“What dream?”

Verity looked away. “I thought I heard someone moving in my room. I believed I had imagined it.”

Rafe’s anger at Roland deepened into something cold. He stepped nearer and took her hand. She resisted for an instant, then allowed him to turn it upward. He placed the pendant in her palm.

“I gave it to you,” he said. “Not to Celestine. I have never given her anything.”

“You called on her.”

“I did.”

“You spoke of an understanding between your families.”

“Because I was frightened by what you found in my room and reached for the first weapon I knew would drive you away,” he finally confessed.

Verity stared at him. The confession left him exposed again, but there was no room left for armor.

“It was cruel,” he said. “And it was a lie.”

“Then why did you say it?” she asked.

“Because the truth was already before you, and I lacked the courage to hear what you might say to it.”

He closed her fingers around the jewel. Neither moved.

The wind shifted her hair across her cheek. Rafe lifted his hand before thought could stop him and brushed it aside. His palm settled against her face. Verity went still. His thumb followed the line of her cheek, passing over the damp trace left by tears he had caused. Her skin was cold from the night, but warmth gathered beneath his touch. Her breath became unsteady.

She did not pull away. The space between them thinned to something dangerous. He felt every word he had denied pressing toward the surface.

Verity’s eyes lowered to his mouth. Rafe leaned closer. For one suspended heartbeat, he believed she might meet him. Then Sergeant moved beside them, his collar giving a soft jingle.

The sound broke whatever held them. Rafe lowered his hand. Verity stepped back and drew one trembling breath. Her fingers remained closed around the pendant.

“I believe you about the jewel,” she said.

Relief struck him so fiercely that he nearly reached for her again.

“But I am not returning.”

“Verity—”

“It is not only you.”

She looked toward the empty road.

“Roland came to my room tonight.”

Rafe became still.

“He told me I must stand beside him and play the grateful wife. When I refused, he reminded me that the law gives a husband authority over a wife.”

“What did he threaten?”

Her hand closed more tightly around the pendant.