Her brow furrowed as she tried to decide if she could believe him or not. This hadn’t just come from what she’d endured at Auburn Ridge. This was from a lifetime of mistreatment. Someone, probably her father, had convinced her that she was unworthy of kindness. Unworthy of love.
“Will you allow me the honor of helping you, Madelene?”
She chewed on her lip as she considered what he was asking, but after a few moments, she nodded. Warmth filled his chest. She was trusting him with something that was obviously incredibly difficult for her. Suddenly, the tables turned, and he was the one who felt unworthy. He would never hurt her, of course, but if she knew who he really was, she wouldn’t trust him.
“Lift your feet.” He slid the towel under and rested the basin of water in the middle. Carefully, he helped her to place her feet inside. The water was no longer warm, but she didn’t complain. She was stoic, staring down at him as he gently washed the dirt away. But fear, and perhaps lingering cold, still made her tremble. He inspected the bottom of each foot to make sure there were no injuries, then moved the basin aside and wrapped the towel around her feet.
“Why are you doing this?”
“To dry them off,” he said as he rubbed her feet with the towel.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know.” He looked up into her eyes. “I’m doing this because you deserve kindness.”
She shook her head. “I don’t.”
“And why is that?”
She paused for a moment and swallowed nervously. “There’s evil in me.”
“What makes you think that?”
She lowered her gaze to her lap as she fidgeted with the coat sleeves that shrouded her hands. “I killed my mother,” she said softly.
Well that wasn’t what he’d been expecting. Was it possible she actually was violent and had been locked up for a reason? It seemed unlikely with such a soft demeanor. Besides, as someone who killed people for a living, he could hardly pass judgment. “Why did you do that?”
His question must have caught her off guard, because she looked at him as if he was daft. “She died giving birth to me.”
He folded up the sleeves of his coat so he could find her hands. “You didn’t kill your mother, Madelene. Sadly, women sometimes die in childbirth. That doesn’t mean it was the baby who killed them.”
“But…” Her eyes moved between their coupled hands and his gaze as she tried to understand what he had said. She’d obviously been told her whole life that she was evil and had killed her own mother. There was plenty of evil in the world, but certainly not in her. It was going to be hard for her to ever believe that, and he wasn’t going to convince her of it in this moment. But he’d planted a seed and could only hope it would eventually take root and grow.
“Will you be alright now if I leave you with a maid to dress?”
She nodded. “I’m sorry, Simon.”
“Hush now. No more apologies.” He squeezed her hands once more, then got up and walked to the door. “I’ll be just downstairs if you need me.”
As much as he wanted to stay and comfort her, they couldn’t linger here. A trip to Auburn Ridge had not been on his schedule and he had work to get back to. Not to mention, they were already taking advantage of the beneficence of someone Simon had never met and who had not personally offered the use of his home and resources.
“Is she alright?” Brennan asked when Simon returned to the drawing room.
He dropped into the chair across from him. “As much as she can be.” He let out a long sigh and downed the remainder of his cold tea. “How does Ash do it?”
Brennan shrugged. “I wonder that myself, occasionally. He does have his partners, though.”
“How long has he been taking in women, and how many does he have in that place?”
“There are usually about eighteen or twenty of them. I don’t know if it’s always been that way. I wasn’t there for the first three years, but that’s been the case for the nine years I’ve been working for him.”
Simon blew out a breath. How did he manage it? Simon had only been helping women for a year, and it was just one at a time. He was exhausted by their suffering, and he didn't even take them on. He simply dispensed with their abusers in one fashion or another, and then settled the women safely back with their families.
What in God’s name was he going to do with Madelene? He couldn’t very well take her back to her father, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to add her to Ash’s burden when he’d already taken on Samantha.
“Is it too early for whisky?”
Brennan laughed. “And that’s why Michael is the one I really don’t understand. Somehow he does it all without a drop of alcohol.”
