Page 30 of A Raven Repents

He laughed. “It was, wasn’t it? I’m sorry for that too. But I’d like to start over, if we could. Make a go of developing at least a friendship, and then perhaps even a proper marriage.”

“I’d like that.” Please let this be real. She was terrified it might just be a dream. Her mind still felt a bit fuzzy.

“I’m sorry I’ve been so terrible to you, Christina. When my mother hears how I’ve treated you, she’ll tan my twenty-seven year old hide.”

Christina gasped. “You have a mother?”

“Don’t we all?” He raised a goading brow.

“I don’t.” She pouted her lip.

“No, I didn’t mean, I’m sorry.”

She laughed. “I was teasing.”

His mouth turned up slowly. “I deserved that.” He leaned back, clasping his hands in his lap. “Will you accompany me to Bournemouth so I can introduce you to her?”

“But surely I’ll only make things worse. Your mother will hate me.”

“No, my mother will love you.”

“But I trapped you into marriage.”

“Well,” he said with a shrug, “that’s up for debate. But she will love you, regardless of how we got here. So what do you say? Will you go with me? I can’t promise perfection, but I will try my best to not be the grumpy, arrogant lout I have been since the day we met.”

“I’ll go. When are we leaving?”

“As soon as you're up to it. Get some more sleep and we’ll see how you feel in the morning.”

“I don’t want to sleep yet. Not now that we’re actually talking. There are things that I don’t understand.”

He nodded.

“You could have just walked away that night and gone back to your normal life, but you didn’t. You insisted on marriage and even forced my hand, or at least that’s how it felt,” she added quickly. “But then you were so angry about it. So angry with me.”

“You’re right. I could have walked away. But it wouldn’t have been right to just leave you to be a pawn in your father’s schemes.”

“Are you saying you did it to rescue me?”

His answering laughter was cynical. “That does sound romantic. But surely a hero would never have bullied you the way I have.” He rubbed his hands over his face. “I’m sorry, Christina. I was angry at you for things that simply weren’t your fault.”

“Like what?”

“Aside from the obvious marriage bit, which I wasn’t happy about, the money I was going to pay your father, I borrowed from the safe in my club. But that wasn’t my money to borrow, and I paid for that with a beating and the confiscation of my keys, and I blamed you for that. If I’m completely honest, a part of me still wants to blame you for it because it’s easier than taking responsibility for my errors in judgement. But it wasn’t your fault.”

“But I thought you had money.”

“I do. Plenty. I just didn’t have access to that amount in the middle of the night.”

“Then why did you agree to pay it?”

“Your father wasn’t leaving me with much of a choice.”

“It was only ever a bluff. He wouldn’t have gone through with it because it would have ruined our scheme. But I still don’t understand. You took the money out of the safe, which means you intended to pay it. So why did you change your mind?”

“I told you, it wouldn’t have been right to leave you to be used by your father. But even that wasn’t really my decision. I would have been expelled from my partnership if I hadn’t married you after that. In order to be a part of that group, I have to be a better man than that.”

She hadn’t meant to hurt Giles. In fact, she’d been so wrapped up in her own fear, she’d never even considered how her actions might affect him. And it had certainly never occurred to her that it would impact other parts of his life. She really had trapped him. “I’m sorry, Giles.”