Page 33 of Ruthless, But for Her

“It is getting cold. We should probably leave,” she said.

Despite his thoughts, Ashton remained seated. Moments of joy—not pleasure, but joy—were as rare as calm water in Mere's End. Ending it now, on purpose, was something he couldn't quite bring himself to do.

But neither would he continue down the path their conversation was leading them.

The wind had picked up off the water, cold and full of salt. Still, he stayed.

“Tell me of your family,” he asked.

She was unlike anyone he'd ever met before, and Ashton was curious how a woman like Lady Cassia came to be.

“There is not much to tell,” she said. She continued staring at the sea, as if it might provide answers, though he knew none would be found in its vastness. Still, she was a vision he would be content to watch for the remainder of the day.

“My mother passed of an illness when I was eight. She lost two babes after I was born, both in childbirth, before she died, so I have no siblings. I was raised by my father.”

He let the silence stretch a moment longer than it needed to.

“We come from two very different places,” Ashton said. “But we have that in common.”

She turned to him.

“Being raised without a mother. I would imagine such a thing is more difficult for a woman. Was there much your father could not account for as you grew up?”

As Lady Cassia seemed to try to remember, she lifted her eyes to the heavens.

“There were many times I wished my mother were alive so I could ask questions of her. Nell has been with me for many years, but some things...some things I was too shy to ask.”

Ask me.

Of course, he would never say such a thing. But Ashton could easily imagine the type of unanswered questions she might have, questions swirling in the mind of a lady with too much decorum to voice them.

“What happened to your mother?” she asked him.

He wished he could answer. “Margot...” He considered what had nearly come out of his mouth. Something he’d voiced only to his brothers.

He shook his head. “I had Margot. And, as you can imagine, very few topics were considered forbidden with her. But neither was she perfect at mothering.”

He said more than usual.

Ashton turned so he, too, was facing the very thing that kept him and his brothers afloat. Growing up in a poor town near the docks, he'd always assumed his future would be somehow tied to the North Sea.

But never could any of them have imagined how.

“I'm not afraid of you,” she said.

That got his attention.

“Not any longer, I mean. I was, of course. We've all heard the tales. But...I do not believe you intend to hurt me.”

“I don't.”

“You said it was a vow you took with your brothers.”

He thought back to his twelfth year. He’d come across one of Margot's girls, bruised past hiding it, refusing to give a name. But they’d uncovered the truth…and dispensed justice, in their own way.

The three brothers said nothing to each other after. They hadn't needed to. Ryker put his knife into the dock post so hard, it took both hands to work free. Sorren didn't speak for two days. Ashton remembered only the decision, made without a word between them... Whatever else they became, they would not become that.

“We've done bad things. Worse than most, especially so young. The three of us live by a line most men don't bother naming. We chose ours after seeing what becomes of a woman who has no one to answer for her.”