Before the Broken Star by King Emily R

Author:King, Emily R.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

At the close of dinner, Jamison and I return to our cabin. While he puts away his violin, I mull over Tavis’s claims about our father. Father boasted that he had made a remarkable discovery, and all these years I presumed his feat was mapping Dagger Island. Could his accomplishment have been validating Amadara’s story? Is the gate to the Everwoods cradled in the depths of the Thornwoods?

I rub circles at my temples. I must be tired if I’m seeking truth in Markham’s lies.

“I can unbutton you,” Jamison says.

“Thank you. Did you take the assignment to the island so you could free Rafferty?”

He finishes with my dress and quickly unlaces my corset. “I couldn’t reconcile him paying for a crime he did not commit.”

Holding my gown to my front, I swivel toward him. “You’re certain he’s innocent?”

“As certain as I am that my father was wrong. He didn’t care that he sent an innocent man to prison. My mother died of an illness we could not fight, then my sister was taken . . . He wanted someone to suffer.” Jamison sits on the bed and slumps forward, elbows on knees. “No magistrate would rehear Rafferty’s case. I shouldn’t have wasted my time on the courts. I should have come sooner.”

Though I am acutely aware of my state of undress, I grasp Jamison’s knee. “You came, which is more than most people would do.”

“Don’t commend me, Everley. I’m simply righting my father’s wrong. I’m sorry for involving you in this.”

His duplicity doesn’t sting. Our marriage offered us both selfish opportunities.

Still, Jamison could have wed any woman aboard that ship. He chose to intervene on my behalf because he has a good heart. He must, or he would not have come all this way to release an innocent man as reparation for a tragedy that was not his fault.

Jamison lays his hand over mine. “You and I aren’t so different. We both want to shed our pasts.”

We are vastly different. Jamison came to Dagger Island to save a man. I came to ruin one.

“I’m here to make Markham pay.”

Jamison rises, our chests so close he can hear my clock heart. “The seconds are ticking by. Don’t give him any more of your time.”

“You want me to forget what he did?”

“Not forget—forgo. After Tarah died, I realized I couldn’t make everything our father did right, but I stopped letting his offenses hurt me. Letting go of my anger set me free.”

Freedom from the past is exactly what I’m after, but my wounds are in the present and I carry my prison within me.

Jamison eyes my gaping neckline. “May I?”

Clutching my gown to my chin, I hold still as he bends and rests his ear over the ticker. Each beat echoes through my head as though my own ear is pressed to my chest. He straightens and touches under my chin. The tick resonates there like a regular pulse.

“You’re a marvel,” he says.

“No—”

“Yes. These years you were given are a gift. Don’t be so distracted with what keeps you alive that you neglect to live.

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