AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His father had also destroyed everything Briggs had cared about in June, and humiliated him while he did it.
‘Briggs, I do wish you’d reconsider about William.’
The mention of William on the heels of the thoughts about his father brought him up short.
‘No,’ he said, his voice sharper than intended.
‘Didn’t your parents...?’
‘I went nowhere. I stayed here.’
‘Were you happy with that?’
Sometimes. Because it had meant living as he chose. Only doing what he enjoyed. Losing himself in his own world.
‘You want to make everything simple,’ he said, his voice rough. ‘It is not simple. You are angry that you’ve been protected all your life, but you can’t know whether or not that protection was necessary. You cannot know if you would have died without the intervention you were given.’
‘I...no. I don’t suppose I can know that.’
‘You resent it but it might be the very thing that saved you. William may be lonely, but being exposed to other children might not be the best thing for him. It would not have been for me. I...am angry at my father. But on that he might have been right.’ It cost him to say it, and to the end of his life he woul
d not know why he had.
Except Beatrice was honest.
In all things.
And there was something about that honesty that seemed to demand it in return.
If there was one thing a man such as himself valued, it was the necessary balances in life.
She looked at him, her gaze far too insightful. ‘Why are you angry at your father?’
‘It is not important,’ he said, his jaw going tense.
‘It must be. For you to be angry after all this time.’
She was so guileless in her questions. As if she merely wished to know.
And it compelled him to answer.
‘My father was cruel. He enjoyed that. Enjoyed making others feel small. He wielded power and control over those weaker than himself. And do you know what that makes him?’
‘What?’ she asked, her voice shrunken to a whisper.
‘A coward. A real man, a man of honour, does not use his power in that way.’
‘You don’t use your power that way,’ she said.
He looked at her and he wanted to...he wanted to cup her chin and hold her steady, hold her gaze until she had to look away.
He could use his power, his strength, to make her feel good.
And just then he felt desperate to do that. It would ease the ache in him as well, this restless fury that had been building since he had brought her here.
Perhaps it is her.
Another reminder of all you once hoped for.
