“Well, thank you,” she said graciously.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked as he draped his arms around her waist, holding her tight against him.
She paused only slightly before deciding to tell him the truth. He was her husband, wasn't he? And they’d reached a new understanding of one another.
“It’s my sister,” she said. “She is increasing. And I cannot figure out how to help her.”
At first, Phoebe thought that Aaron’s stiffness was just because he was processing the shock of what she’d just said. But as the seconds ticked away, he didn’t relax.
Instead, he took a step back until she was forced to drop her arms from around him.
“Phoebe,” he said flatly. “Please tell me that this is some sort of horrible joke.”
“No,” she said. “I’m sorry, but no.”
“She allowed herself to getpregnant?” He hissed the word like it was a swear, one too daring for even a hardened naval man like himself.
Phoebe didn’t like how he made this sound as though Hannah had been alone.
“Well, the man she was withwasinvolved,” she said pointedly, but this didn’t make Aaron relent. Instead, he hardened more.
“This is not something to make light of,” he snapped.
“I’m not making light of it, I just?—”
He took another step back from her. Phoebe started to get a very, very bad feeling.
“Goddamn it, Phoebe!” he exclaimed, a hand going to his head where he clutched at his hair as though he realized his skull was going to erupt with the force of his fury. “Goddamn it all. I told you—Itoldyou. I told you I could not abide any scandal. And now you tell me this? And youknew?”
She should have expected this, she realized. She should have expected his anger. This scandal would affect him now, too.
She had just thought thatshewould matter more to him than the scandal.
“I did,” she confessed.
He gaped at her, shaking his head.
“How could you?” he asked, sounding appalled and betrayed.
This question wounded her in return, even if she did understand why he was asking.
“Because she’s my sister,” Phoebe said, feeling incredulous that she had to explain such a thing. “Wouldn’t you protect your sister if you could?”
His incredulous expression matched her own.
“Yes,” he said, nodding at her. “I would protect my sister. In fact, I am trying to protect my sister whom youclaimto care about, and yet I find that you are the very thing that I need to protect her from! What have you been teaching her, in all that time you spent time with her? Have you been telling her that throwing away her reputation on foolishness is really nothing to get upset about?”
Phoebe’s eyes went wide, and she only just prevented herself from putting a hand to her chest to cover the hurt from the blow he had just delivered.
“I wouldn’t hurt Clio,” she protested.
His scoff was a harsh, guttural thing.
“No, certainly not,” he said, his words dripping sarcasm. “Just like you would never hurt Hannah, I’m sure. You only model recklessness for her throughout her life and then act surprised when she gets herself in trouble. And now, Clio has becomeattached to you as well. God only knows what peril you’ll direct her toward!”
“Aaron!” she protested, but he was lost in a fog of worry and anger.
“If you hadn’t spent so many years determined to be scandalous just for the sake of the thing,” he railed, “if you’d just acted like a normal young lady, been proper and dutiful, then none of this would be happening.”
