Page 68 of Lady Gambit
That’s when she recalled Mr Daventry’s confession.
They loved you dearly.
You were a walking image of your mother.
Those simple facts had squeezed the last breath from her lungs. She’d collapsed to the carriage floor, a sobbing wreck. The vision of an idyllic family scene was too excruciating to bear.
“You’re the last person who needs to apologise.” She pushed an errant lock of raven hair from his brow. This rare glimpse of vulnerability was a blessing.
Women would sell their souls to be alone in a bedchamber with Aaron. Yet thoughts of failure would send him slinking further into the shadows. There’d be no hope of a happy ending for him.
“I blame myself.” They were the words she had been expecting to hear. “I saw no reason to believe Mrs Haggert had lied. Who would leave you alone on the streets? You were so delicate and dainty and?—”
She pressed her fingers to his lips to silence him. “It’s not your fault. You were young. You had three brothers to feed, and still you took me under your wing. I’m not sure why. It would have been easier to leave me at an orphanage.”
Silence stretched between them.
Talk of the past was taboo.
Now he was more amiable, she had to know everything.
“Why did you risk your life to save me?” If she closed her eyes, she would be back in Mrs Maloney’s bedchamber, staring at the blood gushing from Aaron’s stab wound, her sixteen-year-old protector fighting to survive.
Aaron swallowed hard.
“Please tell me,” she begged him. “I need to know.”
An internal battle played through his strained expression.
“Because no one tried to save me,” he confessed. “Because I’d felt the fear I saw in your innocent eyes. A fear my father knocked out of me at the tender age of twelve.” His bitter tone belied the flash of raw emotion in his eyes. “During those terrifying nights on the streets, when I was forced to stay awake to protect my brothers, no one put a strong arm around my shoulder. No one assured me everything would be all right.”
Tears filled her eyes.
She clasped his hand, grateful he had opened the secret door to his heart. “I didn’t know what love was until everything fell apart. Our lessons are entwined, Aaron. We had very different lives before we found each other. But if there is one thing I know amongst all this confusion, it’s that you will always be my brother.”
“I can’t call you Caterina. I mean no disrespect to your parents or the life you had with them. But that’s not who you are to me.”
She took a moment to process the maelstrom of feelings inside. She couldn’t change the past. Nor could she predict the future, but she had power over the present.
“I’m Delphine Chance,” she said, because she would probably be dead or working in a backstreet brothel had Aaron not come to her rescue. “Never forget it.” She paused, allowing the force of those words to penetrate his steely reserve. “That said, some things have changed.”
“Oh?” Every muscle in his face tensed.
“When I return to Fortune’s Den, I mean to purchase a membership to The Burnished Jade. I would like to visit Miss Lovelace’s club. I like her.” There was no question Aaron secretly liked her, too. “I think we could be friends.”
She should have chuckled at that, but she looked around the pretty pink bedchamber and knew it would break her heart to leave Mile End.
Who knew what would happen with Dorian? Would this be a whirlwind affair? Two people seeking comfort during a difficult time? While the past was no longer a complete blur, the future was an utter mystery.
Aaron clicked his tongue. “You’d be bored within an hour. You detest dull conversations.”
“I spend a ridiculous amount of time tidying my armoire. It’s the epitome of dull.” Though now she understood the thrill of a passionate affair. She knew what it was to love a man desperately. Dorian had awakened a hunger inside her, an insatiable zest for life.
“I imagine it’s a damn sight more interesting than the mindless activities that take place at The Burnished Jade,” he said.
Aaron spent a lot of time staring at the club. He fought against his admiration for the proprietor with the strength of a heathen army.
“Miss Lovelace is versatile and caters to all her members’ needs. She led a discussion on Marcus Aurelius’ stoicism. The ladies received lessons in the art of self-defence in case they encounter footpads.”
