For Her Love by Paula Reed Page A

envisioned what she might look like if ever she gazed at him as Faith did Geoff. It would be his undoing. At the mere thought, he felt his mouth go dry and form a ridiculous grin.
    The rear door clicked softly open again, and he turned to see her as she stepped into the light. There was nothing of his daydream in her. Her dress was rumpled and dirty, her face swollen and tear stained, her eyes haunted, hunted, and there was no smile at all. She only stared at him as though she half expected him to murder her where she stood.
    “Grace? Are—are you all right?”
    She shook her head.
    Giles set his wine down and swallowed hard. “God, it’s been a hell of a day,” he said. Damn! That wasn’t what he meant to say. He meant to apologize for how the whole subject of marriage had come up. He should have asked what he could do to help her. He should have said just about anything else.
    One side of her mouth quirked in a ghost of her skeptical grin. “Aye,” she agreed softly, “it has.”
    “I am sorry. I am sorry that I didn’t have a chance to court you and propose to you properly. I am sorry that you are being placed under so much pressure. And I am sorry about your—sister.”
    Grace eyed his glass of wine, sitting on the table. It would feel good, just now, to have its pleasant warmth in her veins, but she was fairly certain that if she were to swallow anything it would come right back up in a matter of seconds. “Me, too,” she said.
    “Can we start again?” he asked.
    Grace regarded him for a moment. He looked like he’d been through hell. He was a disheveled mess, and there was little of the confident commander in him. His shoulders were slumped, and there were faint shadows under his eyes. Again, she felt the need to touch him, to ease the lines of stress that creased his face with her fingertips. She actually clasped her hands before her to keep from doing it. How had this poor man been drawn into the vortex of her life? It would be as much for his benefit as hers if she sent him packing. And yet, when again might she ever have such an opportunity? Captain Courtney was a gentle man, one filled with compassion. He didn’t lash out and hurt people, although God knew, the Welbourne family had caught him in their crossfire. He would have been within his rights to fire back.
    “Are you sure that you want to start over?” she returned.
    “How can the woman I saw in the slaves’ quarters today possibly be the child of those two out there?” he asked, gesturing to the front door.
    “How indeed? Tell me something, Captain, when did you decide that you wanted to marry me?”
    Giles scratched his head. Women had a way of asking questions more volatile than a loaded flintlock. “I came here to get acquainted with you, perhaps to court you.”
    “Why?”
    Now he shrugged. He was, after all, just a man. “You are beautiful.”
    She raised her eyebrows. “Ah.”
    “And intelligent and honest.”
    “Honest?”
    “Your comment about delivering goods from plantations, and you laughed at your father.”
    “What?” Grace asked, shaking her head in confusion.
    “Your father and his absurd comment about the French not eating regular meals.”
    She smiled slightly. “Oh, that. That makes me honest, does it? And that’s important to you, honesty?”
    Giles cleared his throat. Honesty was not always easy, and often, someone had to lead the way. “I think perhaps you have spent your life guarding what you say, and mayhap you think that means you are not honest, but the whole world is not like this place. At least, there are some people in the world to whom you can speak your mind.”
    “And I can speak so to you?”
    “Aye, you can.”
    “And yet, you have not truly answered my question. You have told me that you came here to court me because I am beautiful. But you have not told me when you decided that you wanted to marry me, or for that matter, why.”
    Giles squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his fingers