The Beast of Cornwall (A Beast's Love Book 1) by Eva Devon

Author:Eva Devon [Devon, Eva]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Historical, Romance
Publisher: Bard Productions
Published: 2023-12-24T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 10

“Why do you always look so sad?”

Alec’s bluntness should not have startled her.

She had already experienced his honesty, and in her experience, children were the truth-tellers.

Oh, they were excellent purveyors of imagination and created worlds, but they saw through all the lies that adults spoke, all the false assurances, and saw right to the core of things.

When someone was not well, children knew. When someone was sad, children knew. Adults could not hide things like they thought they could from children.

Alec was no different.

Alec sensed the emotional barometer of Ridgely House, and he sensed her emotions as well. In truth, she did not wish to answer him. Had she not just sent Lord Gabriel away from her door because she did not wish to give an answer?

But here on Bodmin Moor, standing beside the boy who was frolicking across the land like a goat or a mountain sheep, she felt her heart long to yield for a moment, to meet his transparency with her own.

And so before she could stop herself, she blurted, “I miss my son.”

He blinked, then crouched down, his fingers slipping over the blades of moor grass which were rough, bending back and forth in the wind that whipped in from the Channel.

He was silent for a long time as he studied it carefully.

“He’s dead?” he asked bluntly again.

“Yes, dead,” she confirmed. It felt as if her lungs collapsed at that. She didn’t wish to breathe again, but she would. Of course she would. She always did.

“My mum died as well. My dad too. And my brother.”

In the face of his loss, did she dare grieve? Of course she did. The loss of a child was significant. He had lost his entire world though, his whole family in a short span of time, as she understood from the cook.

“I’m very sorry for it,” she said, her heart bleeding not just for herself now, but for him too.

His hands stilled over the blades. He tilted his face up and took her in. There were no tears in his eyes, but there was emotion on his face. Raw, strong emotion.

“I thought I was going to die too,” he said. “I thought when my brother died that they should just dig another hole and put me in the earth beside him. I didn’t want to live without Tom. He’d made it possible for me to survive without Mum and Dad. And he kept me up from the mines, kept me learning. But after he was gone, I thought I was going to have to go to an orphanage.”

His brow furrowed as memory seeped into his gaze. “I didn’t have any more family, and no one could afford to take me in. Not really. Everybody lives hand-to-mouth, meal-to-meal, day-to-day. They can scarce take care of their own. And then of course, Lord Gabriel came. And he offered me a place to stay. Said he admired my brother very much and wanted to do right by him. That I could come and live here on his lands next to the moors and never have to go down the mines.

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