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“The woman you loved and lost?” she hesitantly asked.
“Yes.”
Samantha wasn’t quite sure she wanted to know about that woman. But because she’d already dumped so many of her burdens on him, she wanted to share his burdens, too, as painful as it might be to hear.
“Can you tell me about her?”
He breathed out a weary sigh that sounded like he might be letting something go.
“Her name was Annalise, and I met her in Hanover when I attended university there. I was entirely focused on my work at the time, and thought myself impervious to women.” He flashed her a rueful smile. “I was stupidly naïve.”
“How old were you?”
“Twenty-four when I first met her, but we didn’t become involved until I returned to Hanover two years later.”
“And before that you’d never had any . . .” She twirled a hand. “You know.”
He cut her an amused glance. “Relationships? No. I lagged behind my brothers in that respect—although they were not quite the rakes the gossips made them out to be. Honestly, I never had much interest in women. I liked them, of course, but work and family took up all my time.”
“Until you met Annalise.”
“She was my first love,” he quietly said.
“As Roger was mine.”
Something that felt like sorrow and regret—for both of them—stirred in her chest. And just a tiny bit of jealousy that Braden had loved another woman before her. She wondered if he felt the same about Roger.
For a minute or so, they listened to the gentle hiss of the coals in the hearth as the night settled deeply around them.
“So, after you became involved,” Samantha finally prompted, “did you ask her to marry you?”
“I did. I wanted her to move back to Scotland with me.”
“Did she love you?”
“Yes.”
Samantha frowned. “Then why didn’t she accept your offer?”
He hesitated briefly. “Because she was already married.”
She almost knocked over her glass. “You fell in love with a married woman?”
He winced. “I’m not proud of it, I assure you.”
She flapped a hand. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to screech at you. It just seems so unlike you.”
Samantha had known many honorable men in her life, including Roger. And she knew in the depths of her bones that Braden Kendrick was a man of honor, too.
She touched his arm. “I know you would never intentionally hurt or dishonor anyone. If you became involved with Annalise, you had your reasons.”
He looked at her then, and her heart broke a little at the sadness and shame that lurked in his gaze.
“You’re much too kind, sweetheart.”
She waggled a hand. “You might want to ask some of the villains I’ve encountered in the stews if they agree.”
A small smile tipped up a corner of his mouth. “They deserved everything you gave them.”
