The Frozen Rose

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: A chance at love

William's heart started beating harder. He was relieved when the front door of the Brompton estate opened and Elizabeth walked out. His sister had been able to talk her into coming outside and listening to him. She was ready to give him another chance.

Or not, he thought as she slapped him on his cheek, then turned around to walk away. But he grabbed her hand and turned her around, forcing her look at him.

He had not expected her to slap him. In fact, he had expected that when she came out, she would be ready to forgive him. But then this was Elizabeth he was talking about. Mayhap he ought to have known better.

"I will not let you walk away," he said, "for I know how much it hurts."

She wanted to push him away, but he took her hand before she could hurt him.

"Your brothers already beat me up," he said. He was certain his black eye was still showing and the wound on his lip was visible, but she did not seemed surprised or worried about it. Yep, he had deserved it.

"Not enough if you are here hoping I will talk to you," she told him. William feared that Emily had not done him any good. Elizabeth was clearly very angry with him.

"I do not want you to talk to me, I want you to listen to me."

She scoffed and looked away, but did not say anything, so William took his chance.

"I made a mistake," he told her. "And I did not learn from it the first time. I had to go through the pain twice to know that it truly was a mistake. And I cannot image what I have done to you, how much I have broken you."

"You have not broken me," she said accusingly. "You have ruined me."

He looked down at his hands holding hers. "I know. And it was the best night of my life."

She shook her head and scoffed. "You do not fool me."

"Tis true. Making love to you, having all of you, is the best thing that ever happened to me."

Her eyes bore into his. "Yet you left. Again."

"And I had to suffer through a broken heart. Again. And I let you suffer through it as well. But it hurts more to know that it was I who caused all of it. My mistake that brought us both hardship and pain. My mistake that drove us apart. But this time, I am here to make it right again. To mend what I have broken. To take your fragile heart and never let it go."

"What about trust?" she asked still a little angry. "I thought you did not have it for me."

"I will never be able to forget your lie," he told her honestly, "and I am not certain I will ever forgive you for it. But I was wrong to think that you could not change. I was wrong to believe you were the same woman you were seven years ago. You are not. You became even more amazing than I expected you to become."

"And what about the trust I had in you?" she asked derisive. "The trust you had earned and broke, the trust I gave you back and you took it away again. Do you expect that to return? Because I do not."

"It can, if you give me time."

She shook her head. "No. I have given you everything you wanted, I have even given you my virtue. And all you have ever done is leave me."

One more leap of faith? he wondered. But he could not ask her that. He had already asked her enough. And how could he convince her that he would not hurt her again, if he had already hurt her twice?

Elizabeth could only choose between the man who took away her virtue, and a man who was poor enough to not care about it. Yet he hoped she would chose for him because she loved him as much as he loved her and as much as she had done before. He could only hope that for once, she was not strong and she would swoon for him.