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“Oh, that.” She exhaled with the exhaustion of a battle-weary soldier. “Yes. I suffered an education as well.”
“Is that why my raised voice made you cower?”
She nodded.
“I’m so, so sorry, darling. I’ll endeavor never to raise my voice at you in anger again.”
“You hadn’t. Ever. Not until that day.”
Ah. That’s why she’d been so very upset. “Why didn’t you tell me how much you feared your father?”
“You didn’t share your secrets,” she answered softly, “so I didn’t share mine.”
In retrospect, the pretense he’d displayed, the guarded secrets, the armor, the walls, seemed entirely without purpose.
What a waste, when they could have easily engaged in a peaceful and truthful conversation from the beginning.
“Do you want to tell me more now?”
She sighed deeply. “There’s not much to tell. His physical blows were... endurable.”
His pinky involuntarily twitched.
“But when he called me unwanted and invisible,”—she pressed a hand against her heart—“I wilted every time.”
“I understand. The verbal torture is...” He inhaled sharply. He covered her hand with his. “You know you are neither of those things, don’t you? Especially not to me.”
“I know that now. I know that because you are showing me what it is to be loved.”
“I love you,” he repeated. “So much.”
“I know. And that’s also why I know you are nothing like him.”
Profound gratitude filled his being. “Thank you.”
She worried her lip. “Simon, I have another, more important secret to share.” She blinked, watery. “We’re going to have a child.”
***
Lenora waited for Asquith’s reaction with a heart she’d already filled to overflowing. Then, Asquith smiled—broadly, tenderly, and with the little dimple that so rarely appeared, and her full heart welled out of her eyes as tears caught in her lashes.
She’d waited for that smile. She’d longed for that smile. For heaven’s sake, she’d asked Emily to recreate that smile.
But graphite lines could never capture this particular dimple, at just this moment.
Again, he kissed her brow.
“The possibility dawned on me two days ago.”
He’d known. Of course, he’d known.
She closed her eyes, content to simply exist in the haven of his warmth.
The rich, earthy, and resinous, mossy-haven of a scent he carried with him made the wetness evaporate from her eyes.
He would always be there, even before she asked, with a hard-earned dependability she cherished more than she had before, now that she understood his struggles.
She was safe. Finally.
