Chapter 26
Falk watched Ciara carefully. She was normally so in control and happy. But the torrent of tears worried him. Something very bad had happened. Something that had brought up traumatic childhood memories.
“I remember that song as well. My nanny used to sing it to me when I was being unusually stubborn.” His thumb stroked over her fingers. “Why does it bother you so much?”
She fiddled with her wine glass and he wondered if she would answer him. He wanted her to trust him, but she wasn’t there yet. Soon, but not yet. He was just about to change the subject when she explained, “Because my nanny used to pinch me. Or slap me. Sometimes, she’d beat me with a thin cane whenever I wasn’t acting exactly as she thought I should,” Ciara finally got out, her voice choking on the truth. “She’d use that cane over and over again while singing that song to me. Then she’d continue beating me while she forced me to sing it back to her.”
He watched as she wiped another tear away. And then the meaning of her words hit him. Understanding, horror, and fury, felt like a white hot knife to his soul at the thought of an adult using…had she said a cane? “She…beat you?” he gasped. “With a stick?”
Ciara nodded jerkily and she couldn’t look him in the eye.
Falk clenched his jaw, every muscle in his body tightening with fury. “How often?” he growled.
She shrugged. “Daily. Sometimes she would only hit me once. Other times, she’d hit me over and over. Always while singing that song. Or if I didn’t follow her commands quickly enough, she’d pinch me.” She closed her eyes and lifted her head. “Hard.”
Flashes of that last morning in Switzerland came back to him. She’d been so soft and sweet in his arms one moment, but then he’d…? He’d given her an order about breaking off her betrothal to Zayed. He’d commanded her!
And her nanny, the person who was supposed to protect her and coddle her, keep her safe, had been beating her! Daily? That was just… alleana !
Shaking his head, trying to focus on the present, he took her hand, relieved when she didn’t immediately reclaim it. “Ciara, why didn’t you tell your parents?”
She hiccupped and he wondered if that had been almost a laugh. “Because my nanny told me that they had ordered the beatings. And if I whined to them about her following their instructions, then they would order her to use a larger stick. And on the days when I was being especially rebellious, she’d shove me into a closet and tell me to be quiet until she came back for me.” She looked up at him. “Sometimes, I was locked away overnight without food, water, or a toilet. I was terrified of the dark for years after that.”
“Holy hell!” he whispered, finally understanding the trauma that she’d gone through. “Didn’t your pediatrician stop her? You had doctor’s appointments, right? A can would have left marks. Hell, an adult pinching a child would have left bruises!”
Ciara’s mouth twisted and she sighed. “Doctor Harroby noticed the bruises and welts. But he would merely chuckle, pat me on the head, and tell me that I should be more careful because I was clumsy.”
“ Jahim !” Falk hissed, shocked that Ciara hadn’t had anyone to talk to. “And as a member of the royal family, you weren’t allowed any friends to discuss the issue with, right?”
She shrugged. “Eventually, my parents sent me away to boarding school and,” she stopped, biting her lip as yet another stray tear inched down her cheek. “Things were better there.”
“How?” he growled. “You weren’t abused daily anymore?”
She shrugged and forced a smile. “Yeah. It was a relief to not have the threat of that cane constantly hovering over me or the threat of being shoved into a closet.”
He scooted forward, then obviously wasn’t satisfied since he stood up and lifted her into his arms. Ciara had to balance the glass of wine carefully so that it didn’t spill and she wrapped her arm around his neck.
“There,” he grumbled when he had her back in his arms. “That’s better.” He smoothed a hand down over her knee, not going under the material like he wanted to do. Instead, he kept her safe, showing her that she could talk to him about anything. As long as he held her close, he thought. “Why didn’t you tell your brother? He would have stopped the beatings.”
Ciara leaned into him and Falk nearly purred with relief and an intense sense of rightness. They belonged together, even if she wasn’t ready to admit it quite yet. But now that he knew why she kept pulling back, he could work around it. He would woo her. He would ask her to marry him. Hell, he would beg her to marry him!
“Ramit is several years older than me. We shared a different nanny when I was very young. Then he went off to boarding school and my first nanny had to retire. The other woman was seventy-two years old when she left us and my father bought her a house out in the country where she could relax and enjoy her retirement.” Ciara shifted slightly. “The new nanny my father hired…she was the evil one. But she assured my parents that I would be the ultimate little princess. She’d explained that she had developed an excellent curriculum that would help me learn quickly and I would behave like the perfect princess when the family was out in public.”
“That’s not curriculum,” he replied. “That’s child abuse. The woman should be in prison.”
“I agree. But as a child, I didn’t know. I didn’t have the words. Besides, she never hit me anywhere that would show when I was dressed. So my parents never knew what she was doing. She went off to another home after I left for boarding school.”
“So, she went off to abuse other children?”
Ciara smiled with quiet satisfaction, then laid her head against his shoulder again. “No. I sent a letter to the new family. She was kicked out without a reference.”
“Where is she now?”
Ciara sighed. “I don’t know. When I was in boarding school, I had to struggle to keep up with my lessons. I was a good student, but the first couple of years there, I rebelled, skipped classes, and was pretty obnoxious. I was a bit drunk with the freedom of not being beaten.” She chuckled. “I had a reputation as being stuck up when I first arrived at school, but I soon shifted that reputation to one of a wild child.” She lifted her head and smiled at him. “I liked that reputation better.”
He chuckled as she snuggled closer to him. This was almost better than sex. Almost.
“What’s your favorite color?”
Ciara was so startled by that question that she lifted her head and stared at him. “My favorite color?”
“Yeah. What’s your favorite color?”
She laughed, then shrugged and put her head back on his shoulder. “Pink. I know that it’s a prissy color, but I love it.”
“And your favorite food?”
“Pizza!” she gasped, bouncing slightly with enthusiasm. He had to grit his teeth for a moment, just long enough to get his lust back under control. She was so damn soft!
“Obviously. Anything else?” he asked, agreeing with her preference. “Lobster? Pasta? Cheese?”
Once again, she lifted her head. “Oh, I love a good charcuterie board! One with baked brie and those crunchy pieces of bread.” She stopped, looking at him curiously. “What’s your favorite?”
For the next hour, they sat together asking each other about various preferences. They laughed and enjoyed the quiet moment of sharing themselves with each other.
It wasn’t until Jessy, Ciara’s personal assistant stepped into the room and announced a phone call that they stopped.
Reluctantly, Ciara stood up and told her assistant that she’d be right there. When Falk stood as well, she hesitated, feeling awkward and suddenly shy.
“Thank you. For today,” she clarified, hiding her hands behind her back. “I was…well, upset and it was really nice to just…sit with you.”
“I liked it as well,” he told her. “Not the crying part, but the holding you part.”
She blushed, which charmed him all over again.
“Will you…um…meet me back here tonight?” she asked.
Hell, his body was instantly alert and ready for whatever she proposed. But he kept himself in check…barely…and nodded. “I would love that. What time?”
“After dinner?” she offered.
He nodded again, and she smiled shyly and hurried from the room.
Falk lifted his fist into the air, feeling as if he’d just won a major battle. Leaving her suite, there was a bounce to his step that hadn’t been there before. When he stepped into the conference room where his assistant mentioned the others were talking, he sat down, but his thoughts weren’t on the topic being discussed. He was thinking about tonight. About what he would do to Ciara once they were alone again.
During a break in the conversation, Falk accepted the cup of coffee one of the servants brought to him, still thinking about Ciara when Zayed came up to him.
“So you know,” the other man stated flatly.
Falk stared, startled by his question. “I know what?”
“About Ciara,” Zayed replied, taking a sip of his coffee as he looked out the window. “About her childhood. And the abuse.”
For some reason, the fact that Zayed knew about the abuse before he did irritated Falk. He wanted to be her only confidant. Then he remembered how the bitch nanny had lied about Ciara’s parents ordering the whippings, and the idiot doctor who had brushed the evidence of her abuse aside as mere clumsiness. Ciara had needed someone to confide in. Obviously, she’d felt safe with Zayed. So instead of punching the man, he nodded and took a sip of his coffee. “Yeah. I know.”
The two men stood shoulder to shoulder as they watched the other members of the meeting chat.
Finally, Zayed turned to Falk. “So, what are you going to do to help her?”
Falk stared across the room at Ramit who was shaking his head, obviously responding to something his assistant said. Falk turned and faced his foe-friend. “I’m going to marry her,” he told Zayed. “And I’m going to figure out how to make her happier than she’s ever been in her entire life.”
Zayed’s eyes narrowed on Falk for a long moment. Finally, he nodded, his features softening. “Good. When are you going to start?”
“As soon as you break off your betrothal.”
Zayed chuckled. “That’s the answer I’ve been waiting for.” He punched his friend in the shoulder. “It took you long enough.”
Falk blinked, wondering what Zayed meant by that as he lifted his hand, signaling to Ramit. The man seemed to have been waiting for the signal because he immediately broke off his conversation and came over. He shoved his hands into his pockets, frowning at Falk. “Have you finally figured it out?”
“You knew too?” he demanded, his temper rising. “You knew she’d been beaten over and over and you didn’t do anything about it?”
Ramit’s expression shifted to from smug to shocked in a heartbeat. “What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded.
Falk pulled back, his confusion taking over. “What are you talking about?”
Ramit sighed, rubbing a hand over his jaw. He glanced over at Zayed, whose gaze was sharp as he leaned back and forth on his heels, waiting for…something. “I’m going to step back and let the two of you figure this one out. It’s more amusing that way.”
Ramit rolled his eyes and glared at Falk. “I’m talking about the fact that you’ve been in love with my sister ever since you met her and you’ve been too stupid to do anything about it.”
Falk’s jaw dropped. When he looked over at Zayed, the man nodded. “We both knew. We’ve just been waiting for you and Ciara to figure it out.”
There was another long silence, then Ramit demanded, “What are you talking about?”
Falk felt Zayed take another step back. But his entire focus was on Ramit and his reaction to what he said next. “I was referring to the fact that Ciara was regularly whipped with a stick by her nanny and shoved into a dark closet for hours when she didn’t meet the bitch’s standards of conduct.”
Ramit froze, staring at Falk for a long time. Finally, he turned and glanced at Zayed, who merely nodded confirmation.
Falk was still livid. “You didn’t know?”
Ramit shook his head slowly, too stunned and horrified to speak.
“How could you not know?”
Ramit ran a hand over his face. “Seriously? She was abused?”
“Every damn day!” Falk snarled. He felt a touch of anxiety because Ciara hadn’t given him permission to tell her older brother. Hell, she’d barely been able to tell him! And now, he’d just revealed something that she’d been keeping a secret.
“But…she was protected!”
“Not by her nanny!” he snarled. “And apparently, the doctor dismissed the evidence as well.” Falk moved closer, poking a finger at Ramit’s chest. “She had no one to talk to.”
“I was away at school,” he muttered. Then shook his head. “No, that’s not fair. I came home for school breaks. I should have known. I should have gone to her and asked her how she was doing.” He ran a hand over his hair, shaking his head. “She was always so quiet, so still. I never really thought about why.”
“Now you know,” Falk replied, the tension in his chest beginning to ease now that he realized that Ciara’s big brother hadn’t known what had been happening to her.
“I know now,” he snarled. “And now, I’m in a position to ensure that the old hag never does this to anyone again!”
Ramit turned on his heel and hurried from the meeting.