It shouldn’t. But Gideon was a man after all.
And, yes, five years ago, Beatrice had been foolish. She’d concede that.
She had been told, of course, always to remain with a trusted companion. To avoid isolated locations. To observe the rules that governed young ladies with blind obedience.
But no one had told her the devastatingly ugly reason for doing so.
Not that her body might be in danger. Not that a gentleman might cease to be a gentleman the moment no one was present to see him. Not that the consequence of disobedience might be something far more terrible than gossip.
No. Beatrice would not blame herself for that.
She had not been the evil part of what had happened.
She had been innocent.
And that was the word that caught.
If she had been innocent then, what was she now?
Ruined.
She rejected the word. Despised it.
But as she slowed near the bridge, her gloved fingers tightening briefly about her reticule, she could not stop wondering whether Gideon, given a night to think on it, would see her differently now.
Whether he would look at her and see not Beatrice, but the thing that had been done to her.
The thought made her stomach twist.
Yet still—foolish, impossible creature that she was—she wanted to see him.
When she saw him crossing toward her, relief struck so swiftly it was almost pain.
He had come. Of course he had come.
Gideon lifted his chin and met her gaze, and as he drew nearer, she got a clear look at his face.
“Oh, Gideon,” she breathed.
A faint bruise shadowed the skin beneath one eye. Three thin scratches marked his cheek, only half-hidden by the morning’s unshaven darkness along his jaw. Another scrape marred his temple.
Her doing.
All of it.
Her heart sank to the soles of her shoes.
And yet Gideon’s gaze merely softened. He knew precisely what she saw.
“Good morning, Beatrice.”
She took one step toward him. “Are you dreadfully angry with me?”
He gave a small shake of his head. “Shall we walk?”
That was not an answer.
But he offered his arm, and because she did not quite know what to do with this unexpected ache, Beatrice placed her hand on his sleeve and walked beside him.
