Lord of Regrets by Sabrina Darby Read Free Book Online Page A

“I should have been there to protect you, but instead your mother had to do the best she could.”
    “She lied! She lied, and you want to make us leave!”
    Leona ripped herself out of Marcus arms and threw herself onto the bed, bawling into the coverlet.
    Natasha pushed Marcus out of Leona’s room, shutting the door behind them and leaning heavily on it.
    The hallway smelled of dust, of wood, and of Natasha. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and apologize again, whisper the words of admiration and praise that would never express how he truly saw her.
    “How could you?” she accused, low and despairing.
    “She’s my daughter. I won’t lose you again, Natasha. Neither of you.”
    He flinched at the expression in her eyes: lost, doubting.
    “Please, give me a chance to make it right.”
    “What do you want of me?”
    “I want you to marry me.”
    She was silent for a long time. He fought the urge to babble, cry out his love. If she said no, he would speak again.
    “What good will it do you, Marcus? Leona is illegitimate and always will be.”
    “I don’t care about the codicils.” He had cared years ago, but he’d worked hard to ensure that never again would he be trapped and bound by somebody else’s rules. He had his own life to lead; Natasha, and now Leona, were central to that life.
    She opened her mouth and he waited, desperate for her next words. Her lips worked. She shook her head and looked toward the ceiling. Whatever decision she was making did not please her. Would it please him?
    “At least now, even if it is a lie, people think her legitimate. No one turns from her or speaks of her unkindly.”
    “It is not the ideal situation, but I will protect you both with my name as best I can. Even without an honorific, she is the daughter of a viscount, the granddaughter of an earl. She will want for nothing.”
    “I’ll think about it,” she said finally. Her expression was shuttered.
    “You won’t run away. I’ll follow you again.”
    She met his gaze, and he steeled his heart against that lost look. “I won’t run away. Please, just go now.”
    He nodded, holding himself tight against the surge of elation. She was giving him time. He would make everything right.
    Natasha would be his.
    …
    Natasha knew she should follow him to the door, lock it after him, but no one else had ever stolen into her home. Not here in Little Parrington, where life was quiet and slow.
    No, the danger had left with Marcus.
    Sighing, she crept back into Leona’s room. The candle still burned where Marcus had placed it on the console, but the child––her sweet, small daughter––lay curled and asleep above the covers, her fist tucked against her mouth.
    A far cry away from the look of disbelief and hate she’d had when she’d realized her mother had lied. That crime, too, Natasha laid at Marcus’s feet. He had come back to ruin her, to destroy everything.
    All in the name of love.
    Natasha stifled her laugh, her cry, against her own fist and stumbled back through the door. In the hallway, she let the bitter sob escape.
    She sat up the last three hours before sunrise. She couldn’t sleep and even if she could, her bedroom now smelled of him. Of Marcus and of the intercourse they had shared.
    In five years, she had never once imagined he would ask her to marry him. As if he could wipe it all away with an apology and a marriage offer.
    A mistake. He said his actions years ago had all been a mistake. That if she had waited half an hour, her life would have been different. It was an easy thing for him to say, for she could prove it neither false nor true.
    Did she believe he was sorry? Now, perhaps, faced with the living Leona, but he’d shown his true character in that long-ago moment. As Leonardo Da Vinci had said, “The depth and strength of human character are defined by its moral reserves.”
    Marcus had chosen greed.
    She could never forget that, no matter how she had reveled in his touch, no matter how his