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When she didn’t answer, he moved closer and knelt before her. “Cian told me about the baby you lost.” Carefully, he took one of her hands away from her face and gripped it tightly. And then her sobs began in earnest. He froze when she turned her head into his good shoulder, her weeping muffled.
Slowly, he lifted his arm and placed his hand on her back. When she didn’t protest, he wrapped it more securely around her shoulders and pulled her closer. His heart broke, not for the first time, for the woman he loved.
Drat.
He’d tried so hard to deny it. But he knew he’d been lying to himself. He loved her. Enough to give her up. Enough to wait for her. Enough to enter into an impossible marriage. And now, he wished to take away all of her aches and pains. All of her heartbreak. Every moment of uncertainty and sadness.
Fighting every nerve in his body to jump to his feet and find a way to enact justice for Nyana, he simply held her, stroking her hair until her sobs died. Until her shoulders ceased shaking.
She turned her head against his shoulder to glance at the sleeping girls before speaking. “Liam was…a terror. I wish I had done more to help others, but I was so afraid for my girls. He casually joked that he would kill our unborn child if it was born another girl. So I poisoned him. And I lost the child anyway when he beat me as punishment. I know there were a lot of rumors surrounding the event, but that one is the truth. I want my tattoos to remain black because it reminds me of what I had done and the heartache that still haunts me.”
“You deserved so much better,” he whispered into her hair.
“I didn’t.”
“You were sunshine on the cloudiest day.” He leaned back and ran his fingers softly over her hair and down her cheek. Her eyes were beautiful, even rimmed in red, and her face stained with tears. “You were lovely. You were joy. You were sunlight.” His next words escaped as a husky whisper. “And you still are.”
A couple more tears escaped the corners of her eyes. She opened her mouth as if to reply but then closed it again. Finally, she reached for two more logs and added them to the fire. “There is only one blanket between the two of us. I’m tired. Do you mind if we share?”
“Not at all.” He cringed when enthusiasm leaked through his voice but then tried to cover it as he busied himself with spreading the blanket around them. “It would be warmer,” he amended. “Just like last night.”
She inhaled sharply. “I thought you were sleeping.”
He shrugged his good shoulder. “You were warm. It was nice.”
A beautiful laugh left her lips, and she muffled it in the blanket. The sound sent a pleasant shiver down his spine. Or was that from his fever? Both, he decided.
“Just don’t snore this time.”
“I don’t snore,” he scoffed.
“You do a little bit.”
Even his wound refused to stop his own chuckle. His gaze found her in the dim light of the cave, and he enjoyed the warmth staring back at him. He smiled softly. “Maybe just a little bit.”
Chapter 10
Nyana lost the argument.
She stood scowling at the mouth of the cave as she watched her girls help Joel pack their meager belongings. He moved sluggishly, the entire right side of his shirt covered in dried blood. If only she’d thought to bring her sewing needle and thread to stitch him up. If only they’d had the insight to hide their tracks from the beginning of the journey.
But as she watched Joel kneel down on one knee and present Eva with a white winter rose, the scowl melted from her face, replaced by a fond smile.
Eva’s grin stretched from one side of her face to the other as she accepted the gift, and then she leaned in as if to kiss his cheek.
A thundering surprise roared through her heart as Eva instead whispered something into his ear. His eyes widened as she scampered off, and he immediately glanced toward Nyana.
She just spoke! he mouthed.
Gratitude swelled within her heart. What did she say?
His mouth split into a wide grin. I love you.
Butterflies fluttered within her stomach at the way his mouth shaped those three words, followed by an erratic skipping within her heart as if it sailed across a lake, barely skimming the surface of the water.
Her lips parted in surprise as she slowly lifted her hand to her heart to feel it dancing within her ribcage. Dancing and twirling and leaping just beneath the gloom of her fatal curse.
You all right? he mouthed, now frowning.
