“Yes.”
His chest tightened at her soft murmur of confirmation. To think of her nearly dying felt painful.
“Though, regarding the marriage portion of your deduction,” she continued, “it is not for the reason you may have deduced. He is part of the reason I did not marry, yes, but he is not all of it. When you make the wrong choice in such matters, it is not something you can escape from.”
Simon wondered at that. He had always approached the notion of marriage rather practically. Not for himself, mind you, but in his considerations of Evelyn, when she’d been determined to never marry. For him, it seemed odd that any lady would not wish to secure a husband. It was, after all, the practical thing to do. And Simon believed in practicality above all. “So there may be more to marriage than just practicality then.”
Belle’s laughter drew his attention away from his own musings. “Ever practical, that is what you are. Is that why you took up, rather inappropriately I might add, residence here?”
Simon grunted. “It seemed like a more practical solution for your protection. I have also concluded females are incapable of making decisions based purely on practicality, thus your decision to take up with De Roux had to be, however unintentional, one of the heart. That is how I deduced his involvement in your reason not to marry.”
Belle snorted. “Take up with? How utterly male of you to suppose so much. Like I’ve said, he was an adventure, andnothingmore.”
“Youradventuredid some kind of insurmountable damage if it caused you to decide to never marry after him.” He regretted his words instantly—they went too far. He felt her go rigid beside him again. “I am sorry, that was uncalled for.”
Those heated eyes settled on him. “You do not know anything about me, Westfield. Never forget that and never assume that you do.”
Hell.
But she was right. He did not know what had happened between her and De Roux. He did not know very much else about her personal affairs either.
Yet.
“It could have happened to anyone, Belle,” he said, attempting to gain some control again.
“Youstillmisunderstand me, Westfield. My heart is not broken irrecoverably because I trusted the wrong man. And neither is my soul crushed or anything as melodramatic as any of that. I simply do not wish to marry.”
“Yet he is part of the reason.”
“Of course. The man manipulated and fooled me. But he also showed me,however, unintentionally,” he cringed when she threw his own words back at him, “the value of life.” Her eyes bored into his. “That is why I chose not to marry.”
Then she did the most surprising thing, she took his hand in his and placed it on her abdomen. He could feel raised and jagged skin there. A scar? She traced the line of the scar, showing him that it ran from the center over to the side, just above the hip. It seemed impossible that she had survived such a wound, but here she was with her wide blue eyes, two little freckles on her left cheek, sinful and utterly kissable lips.
“He is as part of the reason in the same way that this scar is part of my body. It is a part, but not the whole.”
Something in Simon melted at her words. No one should ever have to learn the value of life at such a cost. It made him want to strangle the bastard.
His hand trembled as she dropped it again.
Still, he pressed, lowering his voice to a whisper, “Have you ever thought that by denying yourself, love, marriage, a family, you are letting him win?”
“Let it go, Westfield. It is my choice to make.”
Simon wanted to throttle her brothers. They should never have left Belle alone in her grief and later alone to her own devices. It was incomprehensible.
What the bloody hell had they been thinking?
And Belle was wrong about her choice to remain unattached. Being alone was not the way to truly value life. And who better than Simon to show her just how wrong she was in that assumption?
“You should not be here,” she muttered, breaking his train of thought. “You should leave.”
“Neither should you be bait, but as you insist on being stubborn, so I will insist on it, as well.”
“Derek and James are watching over me. I will never be alone.”
Simon scoffed. “They can rot in hell for all I care. I don’t trust them with your safety.”
“What have they done to warrant such animosity, might I ask?”
