“No. I am not taking you most of the way and then abandoning you at the end. If your father is waiting for you at Mopus Manor and I leave you to face him, then all this will have been for naught,” he replied.
There was a firmness in his speech that quickly gave her pause. It told her in no uncertain terms that she would not be winning him over with her proposal for them to part. James was determined to see the journey through to its end.
“I just don’t want you getting the blame for what I have done,” she said.
He huffed a second time and the frown lines on his face grew deeper. She had secretly wondered what he would look like in full anger, and now had a horrible suspicion she was about to find out.
He got to his feet, and a chill ran down her spine. She had sat through enough of her father’s tirades to know when someone’s temper was about to explode. Leah held onto the arms of the chair, her fingers going white with the force of her grip. Holding her breath, she braced for impact.
But it never came.
Instead of the usual ranting and loud bellowing which her father was so adept at delivering, there was silence. Instead of the hot sting of a slap against her cheek, there was the warmth from the fireplace.
When she finally lifted her head, she met James’s sad, puzzled gaze.
“Leah?” he said.
Her fingers remained locked hard against the chair; the habits of a lifetime not easily changed. She had seen her father approach anger from many different angles. All of them ended in the same way—with her curled up on the floor, pleading for mercy.
With careful, measured steps, James approached. He held his arms limply by his sides, showing that he posed her no threat. Leah remained unable to move; it was as if she had suddenly been cast in stone.
Her eyes tracked his movements, her brain registering the contrast between James’s soft unthreatening manner and the hard violence that was the hallmark of her father in one of his full rages.
James bent down and knelt beside her, placing a hand lightly on top of hers. “I won’t hurt you, Leah. I would never do that. You are safe with me,” he murmured.
She focused on his voice and believed his words to be true. Still, she remained in her prison of silence, unable to respond.
James left his hand in place, his thumb softly brushing over the back of Leah’s fingers, gently coaxing her to return to him.
She eventually managed a brief nod. Feeling came back into her body. His entreaty had succeeded. Her breathing slowly returned to normal as the barriers of her self-defense were lowered. Her mind finally convinced her body that she was safe once more.
“I didn’t mean to speak so harshly to you,” he said.
She shook her head. “You didn’t. The reaction is somewhat ingrained, and I have little control over it.”
She could name the various levels of heat and volume in a voice, from the cool, sweet sound that usually accompanied endearments, right through to the blazing intensity of soul-destroying wrath. She knew them all, some better than others.
“Deeply embedded, from the way you reacted so quickly. I’m sorry if I frightened you. I am only beginning to understand how things have been for you, Leah. In time, I hope that you will come to trust me enough to tell me more,” he said.
A little understanding was all she could ever give to James. The rest of her history would remain as it always had—buried deep.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Leah hadn’t said much in words, but her silence spoke volumes. James cursed himself for having thought her troubles had only begun with her forced engagement. Watching her flinch at the slightest raise of volume in his voice gave him all the heartbreaking evidence he needed to understand why she had not stayed in London and faced up to her father.
One of the few unfortunate things that came from having had a happy and loving upbringing was that he wasn’t fully prepared to deal with situations of family cruelty. Thetonwas strict in many of its rules, some of which he considered unfair, especially toward women. Rights he took for granted were often not afforded to the fairer sex. But very few families were outright wicked to their children.
Having a tyrant as a father and living under that yoke day after day all your life was so foreign to him. He honestly didn’t know what he could say to her.Sorrywas such a pitifully inadequate word to use in this situation. Would she even wish for him to say it?
Leah shifted in her chair. Her face brightened. “We were discussing my grandfather and how he is to be approached.”
She spoke as if the interaction of the past few minutes had never happened. James decided to let it rest in the hope that at some point she would feel able to discuss her family with him.
And while Leah appeared determined to move on from the deeply uncomfortable exchange, James made his own decision. No matter what happened before or after they reached Cornwall, he would make certain that Leah never had to go back to living under her father’s roof. His family had enough power and influence to protect her, and he would see it done.
He wondered how much Guy knew of Leah’s family history. Was her former fiancé aware of what Leah had suffered? A chill rippled the hairs on his arm. The notion that perhaps Guy had specifically chosen Leah because she had already been broken by her family sickened James to the core.
“Then we do as we have already discussed. I shall endeavor to discover who is in residence at your grandfather’s home, then decide on what is to be done,” he said.
