A Powerful Little Love

Chapter 59

'Twas a new feeling - something more

Than we had dared to own before,

Which then we hid not;

We saw it in each other's eye,

And wished, in every half-breathed sigh,

To speak, but did not.

She felt my lips' impassioned touch-

'Twas the first time I dared so much,

And yet she chid not;

But whispered o'er my burning brow,

'Oh, do you doubt I love you know?'

Sweet soul!  I did not!

Warmly I felt her bosom thrill,

I pressed it closer, closer still,

Though gently bid not;

Till - oh!  The world hath seldom heard

Of lovers who so nearly erred,

And yet, who did not.

Thomas Moore - Did Not

I don't really know where to start Athos..." Amorette sighed eventually.

"Why don't we start with what I presume will be the easier of the two subjects," he replied matter-of-factly. "I can't imagine how you must have felt that day when I told you I was marrying your sister, but I still don't see how that gave you the inclination to keep secret what your father did to you that day."

"I've never felt pain like it you know," Amorette mumbled.

"What did he do?" Athos asked and Amorette heard a slight hint of alarm in his voice.

She chuckled dryly. "Not that, the pain I was referring to was borne from your confession that you were going to marry my sister. I had noticed you had grown fond of her but I had never envisaged you marrying her. I had always secretly harboured the wish to marry you myself and suddenly there you were professing your love for my sister and preparing to remove yourself from my life."

"But isn't that the real reason you stayed away from the wedding?" he asked.

"Don't flatter yourself," Amorette snorted. "I had every intention of going to the wedding you know. Despite what you think I was happy for you. I think somewhere deep down I had known for a while that I was not the one to make you happy back then. That was what I wanted for you more than anything; to be happy. My sister seemed a reasonable choice to most compared to me. After all who would risk the ire of my father by asking for my hand. The poor soul would have to spend the rest of their lives tied to the man's deeds through a marriage to me. That didn't seem a fair gift to bestow upon anyone. No, I knew if I went to the wedding in that state, you might call it off and do something drastic. Henry thought so too. We thought you might marry me instead in an attempt to save me somehow and where would that have left Ann. I did not want to hurt my sister or you. I wanted you both to have the life that you had planned for yourselves together."

Amorette stepped forward to lean against the balustrade and let a few gentle rain drops prick the cold skin of her face. She felt unable to look at Athos now that they had entered into a discussion she felt wholly uncomfortable with. There was a part of her that still believed he would look upon her as he had done eleven years ago; with pity.