Page 104 of Pride: The Rogue
Darlin’ and sweetheart.
A sad smile pulled her lips at the corners.
Funny how, before Lachlan, she’d have traded her left pinky finger to have a man refer to her so, only to find the very one who’d done it in a way that made her heart race, when to him it was nothing more than a casual throw-away.
Livian’s blurry gaze went back to the top line of Lachlan’s note.
I took care to see you aren’t left in a bad way…
Cringing, she curled deeply into herself. As if her carrying his child would be something atrocious.
An anguished sob spilled out.
Which to him, it clearly would be.
You stupid chit, Lachlan never professed to feel anything for you.
She’d been the one, secretly dreaming of him and imagining a life for herself with Lachlan in it.
Liar.
She brushed away a tear.
A large part of her believed…no, hoped, the time they’d spent together meant as much to him, as it her…
He’d never, however, lied to her. He’d been brutally, bluntly honest from the start to the end.
“…Women are all the same. Sex is all the same…”
“Livvie!’
That startled, happy cry penetrated Livian’s grief.
Swiftly folding the note, Livian managed to tuck it inside, just as her sister, Billy wrenched the carriage door open.
“Livv—”
The younger woman’s wide smile vanished. “Ye all right?” she demanded, already reaching up, and lifted Livian out—a seemingly impossible, but impressive feat considering Billy was nearly as fey a young woman as she’d been the child who’d come into her and Verity’s life.
“Livvie, what happened?” her sister asked worriedly.
“I’m fine.” Livian mustered a smile. “I’m just tired, is all.”
Billy scrutinized her with suspicious eyes better suited a woman thirty years her senior.
Livian held her breath.
Billy, having spent just over a decade of her life pillaging in sewers to stay alive, had more reason for wariness than the oldest, most life-hardened man.
Livian, however, seemed to have passed her sister’s test.
“Let’s go,” Billy said, leading the way.
It felt so very good being with the younger woman; someone who truly loved her.
It was the wrong thought to have.
Fresh tears pricked her lashes.
