“You had me so worried,” she told him in a comforting voice.
He couldn’t help but remember the first time they met. Only that time, it was he who found her unconscious in the woods, bringing her back to his home and tending to her. Now, she was doing the same for him. Tenderness washed over him, and he knew that he could no longer deny the depth of his feelings for this woman. But he could also not forget what happened.
“I… I was attacked,” he said. “It was those boys from the village. They did this to me.”
Reality began to intrude, and William’s memory returned in disjointed fragments—the commotion, the barn, the blow to his head. He winced as he tried to sit up, but Rose’s firm yet gentle hand on his shoulder kept him lying down.
“Don’t try to move too quickly,” she said softly. “You need to rest.”
“No, Rose,” he shook his head, although every movement brought him pain. “This has gone on long enough. This must be the work of those same boys from the village who have been wreaking havoc on my property.”
Rose’s eyes widened, and she took a deep breath, her expression one of pleading desperation. “William, the boys are just young and foolish. They don’t realize the seriousness of what they’re doing. They’re just listening to silly stories about the monster in the manor.”
William flinched at her words. He knew she didn’t think of him that way, but it hurt to hear Rose refer to him like that. His eyes narrowed as he studied her, confusion mingling with the pain. “Why are you suddenly defending them? It was one thing to have to constantly mend broken windows, but a fire, Rose… that is serious. Someone could have died.”
“I know!” she said desperately, her voice on the verge of breaking. “But no one died. We were fortunate. The situation is already bad as it is. Why make it worse?”
William frowned. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. A fire could have taken lives. His life.
“Rose…” he said, his eyes wide and incredulous, “I could have died. Do you understand that?”
“I do, of course I do,” she replied frantically, but he could not understand why she would take the opposite side. Why couldn’t she understand him and be on his side, as she had been up until that point? What changed?
“But?” he asked, his question lingering between them.
“But you have to admit that it is not only their fault,” she said, her pitch constantly changing. One moment she was shouting, the next she was whispering. He could tell that she was upset, that she was in pain, but not because of him. That was what hurt the most.
“Then whose fault is it?” he demanded to know. “Did I set my barn on fire? Did Mr. Hancock?”
“No,” she replied, barely audible.
“Those boys have crossed the line, Rose, and they need to be taught a lesson, before they do something the entire village might regret,” he said, only then realizing that he made it seem like a threat, but in reality, it wasn’t.
“What do you mean by that?” she asked, shocked.
“I mean that the fire could have easily spread to the closest homes of your precious village as well, and then what?” he exclaimed. “Will that be my fault as well? That I didn’t extinguish the fire in time?”
He could feel his heart breaking into a million little pieces and he knew that he would never be able to put it together again. Not that it mattered. Love was never meant for the likes of him. It was better to forget that silly notion and live out the rest of his life as the monster that he was.
“You haven’t made it easier on anyone, especially not on you,” she tried to reason with him again.
“What do you mean?” he raised an eyebrow.
“You could have gotten out more. Let people see you for who you really are,” she clarified. “I have seen the real you. They could have done the same, if only you had allowed them.”
His jaw tightened angrily. “It is my own business whether I want to go out of my own home or not,” he snarled. “It is not the villagers’ business, and neither is it yours. Whether I choose to socialize with them, I should at least expect not to have my property set on fire. Or is that asking too much?”
“No,” she shook her head. “I know those boys have gone too far. You are right in thinking so. But that is only because they don’t know you. They only know what they heard from their parents, whom you’ve dismissed from their places of employment in your manor, the same employment that has put food on their tables for years.
You dismissed them without taking them into consideration upon returning from France and now, it is only to be expected that they speak very poorly of you.”
William stood in stunned silence, the weight of Rose's words sinking in. The connection had never occurred to him before. He had always assumed the boys were simply taking jokes about his appearance too far. He had put up with it because, in some twisted way, he felt he deserved it. But now, it turned out, he was even more right about that than he had realized.
Rose noticed the shock on his face and asked, “Why did you think the boys were doing this all this time?”
He stiffened, his shock quickly turning into defensiveness. “It's none of your business. It is clear who you are trying to protect, and it’s not me.”
Rose’s eyes flashed with hurt and frustration. “I’m standing up for people I care about. Including you. I’m sorry you don’t believe me.”
