Chapter 28
POV: Sorsha
Callum was loathe to leave me, but didn’t want me to come along either. I held the little chick close, feeling it shake against me, and my own heart wasn’t much steadier.
I couldn’t believe what I’d done. Me, who hated violence, who swore I never wanted to be part of it—and yet I had been ready to bring a hammer down on a man’s skull and bash his brains out.
A person. A life.
The second I thought Callum was in danger, I threw everything I believed clean out the window and grabbed the chance to end someone with both hands. What kind of woman did that make me? Did violence run in the family after all?
I told myself it was to protect him, but how would I have lived if I’d killed The Don? I couldn’t picture myself in that light, and I was certain Callum would’ve left me. He hadn’t killed anyone. Yes, he fought in the pits, did plenty of damage, but not beyond repair.
I was thankful the Don had rolled away, but the worst part was knowing I’d do it again if it meant saving him. That truth scared me more than anything.
Were humans just savages?
Thank the gods neither of us had killed The Don. Mabel had, and no one could blame her. I was glad of it, even while my stomach twisted. Better her than us.
I heard voices and the cart rolling up, but I didn’t move.
One unfamiliar one said, “I don’t know why he married her. Once you marry trash, you can’t get away from it. I mean, look what happened here.”
“Don’t let Callum hear you say something like that, you might be the next corpse,” another voice said.
I was Sorsha, the person everyone thought was trash—only now in finer clothes.
I knew what I had to do. Setting the chick in the basket, I slipped out the front door while they were busy in the backyard and ran straight to my old house.
The place looked worse than I remembered, desolate and hollow, and the stench hit me the moment I stepped inside. I gagged and barely managed to control myself.
Whiskey bottles were strewn everywhere; my father hadn’t bothered clearing even the space he slept in.
Besides the smell, the dust was so thick and the floor so grubby that it made me sick to think I’d lived like this.
Running out the back door and down the porch steps, I kept going, down the path that wound to the small brook, gulping in fresh air as though I could rid myself of the stench that tainted me from head to toe.
A taint I’d carried since birth.
When I reached the water’s edge, I collapsed. The tears came then, sliding down my cheeks in silence, as if they might cleanse me—though deep down I knew nothing could.
Much later, when the tears had dried up and the sun was sinking low, I sat by the brook and turned it all over in my head.
Learning to read had been a dream of mine, and Callum had made it real. But what did it matter if I could read every book in the world, if people still looked at me and only saw trash?
“I was hoping you’d come back on your own so I wouldn’t have to look for you,” Callum said, lowering himself onto a nearby rock.
I jerked in surprise. I hadn’t even heard him. “How did you find me?”
“The path is well trodden…”
“Oh.”
“Are you running away? Leaving me?”
I clamped my arms around my legs, dropping my chin so I wouldn’t have to meet those eyes that always pierced through me.
“Are you angry?”
“No. I just want my wife back.”
“Do you really?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Callum sighed and came to sit beside me.
“I’ve never been good at saying how I feel, but I’ll try. Every day, I waited for you to walk past the forge, just for a glimpse. I probably handled things all wrong. I should’ve asked for your hand outright, but I only acted when I overheard Oscar and Ryan talking about selling you.”
He stretched his legs out, crossing them at the ankles before continuing.
“They didn’t even seem to know slavery had been abolished. I knew they’d run to the magistrate, so I slipped in before them. You know the rest.”
“That still doesn’t tell me why.”
“Will you marry me?”
I blinked. “I already did.”
“Not of your own free will.”
“Again—why?”
His eyes softened. “Because you’re my fairy princess, and I don’t want to live without you.”
I groaned in frustration, and in one sly move, Callum pulled me into his lap, his hand warm against the nape of my neck. He bent forward, his lips just brushing mine.
“Because I love you,” he whispered, then kissed me — a kiss full of hunger, demanding, as though he couldn’t hold back anymore.
When he finally drew away, I was breathless. I cupped his face, words spilling out. “I realized today I love you too, but I’m no good. Even if I can read, I’ll always be trash in everyone’s eyes.”
“You’ve never been trash in my eyes,” Callum said, firm and steady. “And I don’t give a damn what anybody else thinks. If it bothers you that much, then we’ll move.”
“But,” I began.
“No buts.”
“I swung a hammer at a person today and could have killed him.”
“But you didn’t.”
“I know that, but I would do the same again, and maybe I have this violence in me…”
Callum burst out laughing. “No, you don’t. I know violence, and you just wanted to protect me.”
With that, his mouth came down on mine again, and I knew I couldn’t leave him. I wanted to be by his side forever.
“Let’s go home,” he suggested, and the word home wrapped around me like a promise. My doubts fell away. Home was with Callum, and it didn’t matter where we lived. I’d show this town what I was made of.
We walked in silence for a while until the house came into sight. “So will you?” Callum asked.
I froze. Will I what? Have sex?
“Will I what?”
“Marry me?”
“I don’t understand…”
“We need a proper church wedding, with a dress that actually fits—and then we’ll exchange the rings,” he said with a grin.
“Oh.” I pictured the wedding dresses I’d seen in shop windows, but couldn’t imagine myself in one. Did I want to? Yes. I did. “Okay.”
He pulled me indoors, and I had a feeling tonight we’d do more than just cuddle.