Page 77 of Surrender

“This isn’t just because of where you come from, is it dearest?”

“He deserves better than me, Mother. I cannot let him give up so much. He’ll be the last—”

Genevieve came to an abrupt halt, her mouth going dry at how close she’d come to revealing a truth that would hurt her mother deeply. Rhea Rockwood’s darkened with pain as she squeezed Genevieve’s hands.

“That he’ll be the last of the Rockwood line?” At her mother’s soft words, Genevieve stiffened with a sudden sense of dread.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Peter came to your father a week ago. Your father couldn’t make sense of what your brother told him, but I did.”

At the expression of sadness on her mother’s features, Genevieve could feel the blood draining from her face. Tugging her hands free of her mother’s grasp, she took several steps backward in horror.

“What are you saying?” she whispered.

“Your father and I have always known Ruckley did something to you, my darling. But we’re also convinced he threatened to harm the rest of us, your family, if you said anything.” Rhea Rockwood was teary-eyed as she met Genevieve’s gaze. “It breaks my heart that bastard destroyed your childhood, what little there was of it. But the one thing Peter conveyed to your father was that you would never have children, and for us that is the most heart-breaking of all.”

Genevieve swayed on her feet at her mother’s words. With a slow shake of her head, she tried to refute the fact that her mother was aware that Ruckley had harmed her. Even if her mother didn’t know the entire truth as to the acts she’d been forced to commit, Rhea Rockwood knew more than enough.

That her parents knew even a small bit of her degradation at Ruckley’s hands was terrible enough. Worse, her parents knew she couldn’t have children. It was almost too much to bear. Her mother closed the distance between them and kissed her cheek in a gesture that conveyed the deep love her mother possessed for her. Cupping Genevieve’s face in her hands, her mother offered her a sad smile.

“I know you think you’re unworthy, but it’s obvious Theo doesn’t. He adores you,” her mother said softly. “He also knows you well. In fact, he knows you so well that he spoke with your father last night about the possibility you might change your mind today about the wedding.”

Genevieve jerked back from her mother, then whipping the back of her gown to one side, she crossed the floor to stare out the window. A thick blanket of white covered the grounds of Callander Abbey as she stared off into the distance toward the croft. Theo had insisted they spend their honeymoon there, teasing her that she would have to deal with a straw mattress for a few days.

She’d known their bed would be much softer, as she’d seen him and a number of the male Rockwoods, including her father, taking furniture and supplies out to the croft in a wagon. Genevieve closed her eyes to suppress the tears threatening to roll down her cheeks. Behind her, Genevieve’s mother sighed, her voice breaking as if she were about to cry.

“Dearest, I know how difficult this must be for you. You love Theo and want only what’s best for him.”

“And I’m not the best for him,” she replied, continuing to stare out the window. “He deserves much better.”

“No. What I deserve is a wife I love beyond measure, and who I know loves me.” Theo’s firm voice rang out behind her as a loud feminine chorus of objections sounded in the hall outside her bedroom.

Startled, Genevieve spun around, almost tripping over the hem of her gown, to stare at Theo in amazement. She didn’t know what surprised her the most, her Aunt Louisa’s inability to keep him from seeing the bride before the wedding, or her father stepping into the room behind him, his hand outstretched to his wife.

“Shall we give them a moment, mo chridhe? Like her mother, she’s just as hardheaded about how worthy she is of being loved as you were.”

Percy Rockwood waited as his wife quickly closed the distance between her and their daughter. With a tender kiss to Genevieve’s cheek once more, her mother accepted her husband’s hand, and the two left the room. The muffled thud of the door closing behind her parents, leaving her alone with Theo. As she stared at him, she took in his dazed expression.

“You take my breath away, Genevieve.” His compliment was filled with awe and love, and she swallowed hard as she shook her head.

“They say it’s unlucky for the groom to see the bride before the ceremony,” she choked out, unable to think clearly now that he was in the room with her.

“I think that’s when the bride isn’t having second thoughts.” It was a gentle chastisement, and Genevieve winced, then bowed her head. Theo walked across the floor to stand in front of her, and with his fingers, he lifted her head so she was forced to look at him.

“I seem to recall you saying you only want to run to me, Genevieve, not from me.” The quiet words made her shake her head.

“I do, it’s just that…”

“Just what?”

“I don’t know how to put it into words. I love you, Theo. I love you so much, and I don’t want you to regret marrying me. I don’t want to disappoint you, ever. I know you’ve said my inability to bear you a son—”

“Genevieve,” he interrupted in a firm voice. “Do you trust me?”

“I…” she hesitated for a brief moment before she nodded with certainty, although her voice was soft. “Yes, I trust you.”

“Then believe me when I say I’ll never betray that trust. I’ll never regret marrying you. I can’t imagine spending another day of my life with anyone else but you at my side,” he said as he kissed her, then lifted his head to smile down at her. Genevieve pressed herself into him for a brief moment, then stepped back.