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“He wasn’t worth your soul,” she whispered.
“No. But you are.”
Lavinia looked up at him, and he swept the tears away from her cheeks. “Why don’t you judge me?” And she honestly could not understand. This kind, gorgeous human being somehow accepted all her faults and didn’t judge her one whit.
“It would be easy to just say I love you, and let you believe that is why,” he said slowly. “And I do love you.”
He loves me?
Everything inside Lavinia heated and tensed.He loves me!
“But that is not why I don’t judge you. And I want you to understand this. None of it is your fault.”
Lavinia looked up at him, confused.
“Your father beating you was never your fault. Your guardian’s attempt to trick you into any marriage is not your fault—”
“But—”
“No. It simply isn’t. You can’t take responsibility for other people’s actions. And I can’t judge you for what other people did.”
“But I killed him,” she repeated again. “And not because I wanted to protect Matilda, but because I was afraid he’d kill me next.”
Sebastian looked at her as if she were speaking a foreign language he did not understand. “Ma petite,perhaps your first instinct was to save yourself, but who can fault you for protecting your own life? If you didn’t hit him, he would have killed Matilda. Would you rather you did nothing? How would that make you feel?”
Lavinia shook her head. “I would never have forgiven myself.”
Sebastian rested his chin on the top of her head, and somehow this gesture calmed Lavinia as she cuddled deeper into his embrace.
“You are the most selfless person I’ve ever known.” Sebastian’s voice reverberated through his chest. “And yet, you are convinced you are the most selfish.”
“I’ve made so many mistakes,” Lavinia breathed.
“Haven’t we all?”
Lavinia wanted nothing more than to sit like this, in Sebastian’s arms, surrounded by his reassuring heat forever. But she could not forget that her mistakes had consequences. She disengaged from his embrace, wiped her tears, and looked up at him.
“What shall we do about the note?”
Sebastian smoothed her hair away from her face. “First things first. I’ll get a license and we can marry today or tomorrow. I would rather we did it in a grand ceremony, but considering your guardian’s interference, I think the sooner we marry the better. Then we travel back to London and deal with your guardian.”
“And then?” Lavinia crinkled her brow. She wasn’t about to protest a quick wedding.
“And then we ask for help.”
