Page 10 of Sweet Hellion

Emma hurried down the remaining stairs. “But I tried to kill you.”

“You thought you had cause.” He strode across the shop to a pile of stokes on the workbench next to a broken carriage wheel.

Emma blinked. Where had the wheel come from? Why had he brought stokes from the shed?

“What are you doing?”

He reached for a mallet hanging on the wall. “I am mending a wheel.”

“Why?”

“Because the wheel needs mending,” he answered mildly as he inspected the mallet.

Emma stared.

After a minute, his dark eyes met hers. “I have no coin to give you, lass, but I can offer the sweat from my back. There are plenty of wheels that need a mending.”

“You’re mad,” she whispered, even as a thread of hope bloomed in her heart. To have someone to help her…if only for a little while…even though, now, there truly wasn’t a reason to hold onto the shop. The thought brought a weight crashing down upon her shoulders. Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe.

“Tory’s not coming home, is he?”

She began to cry great, heaving sobs that wracked her body. Strong arms encircled her. Emma tried to push away, but he pulled her tight against his chest. She wept until her sides and chest ached, releasing a deep well of pain she'd carried since the day her father had died.

“I do not cry,” she swore through sobs.

When she quieted, he drew back and brushed her tears away with the back of his hand. His gentleness released a fresh onslaught of tears. She buried her face in his chest and dug her fingers into his plaid, anchoring him there so he couldn’t leave. It had been so long since she’d felt comfort, the touch of another human.