A Christmas Reunion by Donna Hatch

Author:Donna Hatch [Hatch, Donna]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Regency, Scarred Hero/Heroine, Reunion
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2014-05-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

Bennett’s stomach dropped. No. No, she could not know.

But another voice mocked him that she already knew the secret he’d sacrificed so much to keep from her. She’d seen his injuries, she’d seen his difficulty walking. She knew he was broken. Useless.

It didn’t matter. He’d freed her, and she now had no reason to feel obligated to marry him. He couldn’t lie to her anymore. The weight of his lies bore down on him until his shoulders threatened to break.

He drew a steadying breath and turned to her. “No, I’m not married.”

As she approached, she stepped into a patch of moonlight pouring in through a window, casting a coppery sheen on her hair cascading loose and free around her shoulders. She drew near enough that her perfume curled around him. Violets and lavender. That scent had accompanied every letter, had lulled him to sleep as he’d lain with her letters enfolded in his hands at night.

When she was near enough to touch, she stopped and spread her hands in a helpless gesture. “I don’t understand. You broke off our engagement, yet didn’t get married?”

“No. I…fabricated that.”

“Why?” The words seemed to tear out of her.

Heaven help him, he’d rather face an enemy in full charge than confess the truth to her. Donning the invisible armor he’d worn each time he’d called an order that might result in the death of someone under his command, he sorted through possible explanations.

“I thought it kinder.” He moistened his dry lips. “I’d decided we didn’t suit and that I’d make you miserable, and then you’d make me miserable, and there’s no reason why two people should be together under such circumstances, much less try to have a family.” He closed his mouth with a snap to turn off the idiotic babble. He scrubbed a hand over his face.

“Bennett.” She spoke quietly with knowing in her voice. “Look at me.”

No. Absolutely not. He would not look at her and let her see into his soul. He would not trap her into marrying a ruin of a man.

She stepped closer, reached up, and put a soft hand on his face. “You decided we didn’t suit.”

He looked at the window, the wall, the floor, everywhere but her eyes. “Er, yes.”

Her voice turned achingly gentle. “When you were recovering from your injuries.”

He swallowed past a boulder in his throat. In a hoarse voice he said, “Yes.”

“When you realized you’d never walk normally again?”

Oh, saints above! “Don’t do this,” he rasped.

“Because you didn’t think I’d still love you if you came home as anything other than a perfectly whole man?”

An appalling urge to weep swept over him so furiously that he had to blink several times, still trying to swallow past that stubborn blockage in his throat.

She whispered. “Am I so shallow?”

“No.” His voice cracked.

She stepped so near that the heat of her body sank into his chest straight through to his heart, and she put a hand on either side of his face. “I love you. I don’t love your ability to walk or run or dance.

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