Lifting her eyes to et his, she found him watching her intently. "Thank you for standing up for earlier," she mused softly, still holding his hand in both of hers.
Rav wasn’t used to receiving gratitude and didn’t know how to reply to her, so he acted on instinct by pulling his hand out of hers and said,
"Don’t ntion it. No man should degrade or insult a woman in that way," he replied. "Especially when that woman had once been his wife. There should always be respect, no matter if the marriage has been over."
Evenly’s warm smile faltered a bit. "Do you an you would have fought like that for any woman?" she asked, her voice quiet but edged with sothing vulnerable. No one had ever fought in her na before, and it had ward her heart far better than anything else could.
She had hoped for a sign that she was special to him, that the feelings she was beginning to carry weren’t one-sided. On their way back, her heart had swelled at the thought of him fighting for her. But now, it felt like she had misunderstood his intentions for the fight.
He was a gentleman who would defend anyone, not her in particular. It wasn’t that she was against him defending soone else, but she had hoped for so sign that he was different from her scumbag of a forr husband. And he was, but the things he did might have been driven by the guilt of what had happened the night before.
"Never mind, I should go ahead," she muttered, turning to follow Belle on the stairs.
Before she could take another step, Rav’s hand shot out and caught her arm, stopping her. He pulled her back gently, then placed both hands on her shoulders, making her look up at him. Her questioning eyes t his gaze as his fingers tightened just slightly against her shoulders.
"I have never fought before," he admitted. "Whenever I sense a fight about to start, I run from it like a plague, just to avoid being caught in it. There was a ti Alison got into a fight with our neighbors because their dog barked all night and disturbed her sleep. She was called all sorts of offensive nas by the man, but I never went to hit him because I didn’t want a fight. But when I heard Clifton insulting you... I couldn’t hold it in, my anger, the urge to hit him, it just ca out of ."
Evenly stared into his light red eyes as his words sank into her, and slowly her heart began to flutter with warmth all over again.
"I know what you went through in the past will make it hard to trust my words," he continued softly, "but I want you to know that if you beco my wife, I will never raise my hands against you. I’ll do my best to be a good husband and a friend to you. I will give you my all."
Rav couldn’t yet tell if what he felt was love. From the era he had grown up, there was no such thing as courting a woman after going to bed with her. To him, it was best that everything else ca after marriage, and honestly, he didn’t think a marriage with the lady would be as awful as his lonely life.
One of his hands slid up from her shoulder, trailing gently to her hair. He stroked away the dried mud caked in her tangled red strands with delicate care, as though every touch carried a silent promise.
"I know we didn’t start off on a good side, and I am sorry for all the tis I ever caused you pain by shutting you out and letting you suffer alone. But if you give a chance, I will try to be the man you will never regret marrying. I will try to give you everything you will need."
Evenly’s throat tightened, closing up as her gaze slid away from his in sha. She had already decided that she would take the risk with him, but the sha pressed down on her chest because, now that she thought about it, she lacked sothing else, sothing she could never change, sothing that might co between them in the future.
Her voice trembled as she said, "But I can’t give you my all... because I can never give you a child."
Rav smiled then, a smile that reached all the way to his eyes and deepened the dimple in his one cheek. He spoke as if he hadn’t even heard her words. "Will you be my wife?"
Evenly lifted her gaze to et his. Every doubt she’d carried about him still loving his late wife had lted away with his words. Still, a part of her whispered it wasn’t fair, that a nice man like him should be stuck with a woman like her. Tears welled in her eyes. "I can’t give you children..." she whispered again, her chest constricting painfully.
"Will you marry ?" Rav repeated, softer but determined.
Evenly swallowed with difficulty, her voice breaking. "Can’t you hear what I’m saying, Rav? I can’t have your children. I can’t give birth ever again. If I marry you, we’ll live many years alone with no kids. You’ll eventually get tired of and beco like Josh—"
Rav didn’t know where the overwhelming urge ca from, but he leaned down and covered her mouth with his. He kissed her the way she had kissed him the night before. He let his tongue stroked hers as he nibbled gently on her lower lip, tasting the salty wetness of her tears. Instead of pulling away, he kissed her deeper, as if he could wipe away her pain with his lips.
"I don’t care," he whispered against her mouth. "I lived many years after I lost everything, alone, and I didn’t get bored. I don’t think I will get bored if we get married and live together."
All the years he had grieved, it had been for his son far more than for his wife. His little boy had ant everything to him, always looking up to him like a protector. The child had not even lived half of his life before it was cruelly taken from him. Rav had mourned for his son deeply, his death had wounded him far more than his wife’s ever had.
He had clung to his late wife’s mory and loyalty not because he had been madly in love with her, but because she had been his wife, and he had felt he owed it to her. He had failed to protect her, and that guilt had chained him to her long after her death. But he didn’t want the guilt to hold him forever.
Even when Alison had been alive, he had never felt the warmth of love the way he felt the growing bloom with Evenly, whose every touch counted and stayed with him. He didn’t even know when those feelings had begun, only that they had quietly taken root inside his heart.
Now, before they could fully bloom, he wanted to bind them to sothing lasting, sothing real. He wanted their marriage to give him the freedom to love her without guilt, a second chance at a life he had once thought was forever lost.
"What about children?" Evenly whispered as he leaned his forehead against hers, their breaths mingling. "Don’t you want them again in the future?"
"I can do without them," he said simply. "If you beco my wife, I’ll never get bored of you. Children don’t guarantee happiness. We’ll have many of Lord Dagon’s children to look after in the future. Will you be my wife, my lady?"
Evenly’s tears shimred as she looked into his eyes and slid her arms around his narrow waist to hold him. Though she still believed marriage was too fast, that there was still so much to learn about each other, sothing in his gaze made her feel it wouldn’t be so bad to give love a second chance. Just as Belle had advised, she could always walk away if it turned out badly. Yet deep inside, she doubted it ever would.
"First of all, you have to learn to use my na, Christian. Ask again, with my na," she teased softly, fighting back the sob that threatened to spill from her gladness.
Rav hadn’t been called by his given na in many years. Hearing it now felt strange, but it didn’t bring back the pain of the past. It felt like stepping forward into sothing new, a step toward healing, a step toward a better life.
"Will you marry , Evenly?" he whispered.
She couldn’t even bring herself to speak the words. She simply nodded, her heart full. She knew his love was only beginning to bloom and hers was just taking root. But a marriage between them would be beautiful, full of monts she would treasure and things she would love to teach him in the future, things she would love them to do together as a couple.
"Can’t believe we’re talking about getting married without knowing your last na," Evenly said, her voice thick with tears.
"It’s Hathway."
"Evenly Hathway," she repeated, testing the sound on her tongue. "I like the sound of that. Kiss again, Mr. Hathway."
He leaned down to kiss her, but just before their lips t, he jerked his head to the side and coughed. The cough seized him suddenly, rough and unexpected. He turned away, covering his mouth.
Evenly hurried forward, concern flashing across her face as she placed a hand on his back, patting gently, but when the cough didn’t subside, she looked more concerned.
"Let get you so water," she said, thinking he must have choked or that his throat was too dry from dehydration. She dashed off, telling him to stay put and not move.
anwhile, the coughing subsided slowly. Rav straightened, breathing deeply to calm himself. Then he felt sothing wet on the palm he had used to cover his mouth. When he brought his hand down and looked at it, his eyes narrowed at the sight of black blood staining his palm. His face turned as pale as a sheet.
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