Darling Beast (Maiden Lane #7)(78)

His arms came up to wrap around her as if she were a small child.

“Once…” She swallowed, steadying her voice. “Once I saw a greenish bruise upon her cheek before she covered it with paint and I thought it rather odd—it was such a strange place to be bruised. But Kitty said she bumped into the corner of a door in the dark and I believed her. Believed her without question. I never even thought to question that silly lie.”

Her voice had risen and he brushed her hair back from her face, laying his lips on her temple, still saying nothing.

“She married him, after more than a year of courting, for he was that much infatuated—he actually married an actress despite his family’s opposition and his own lineage.”

Apollo stirred at her words as if to make comment, but she continued before he could.

“I didn’t see her then for nearly a year. She sent letters, writing about how happy she was and how her new husband didn’t like to share her, even with old friends, and I missed her dreadfully, but I was glad that she’d found her true love. She visited after many months and though she walked with a limp I thought nothing of it when she said she’d fallen in the street and twisted her ankle. But her accidents became more common as her visits grew less and less. When I met her, in the second year of her marriage, at a tea shop and saw, despite the paint she’d used, that her eye had actually been blackened…”

He kissed her, high on her temple, and whispered, “What happened?”

“I pleaded with her to leave him, of course. She had friends, many friends, in the theater. I told her we could hide her if need be, find work for her.”

“Did she?”

“No. She wouldn’t hear of leaving him. The maddening thing was despite his monstrous treatment of her, she still loved him. Kitty felt that he’d made a sacrifice for her by marrying her against his family’s wishes, and if he had a horrendous temper, then that was the price she must pay.”

His hand stilled on her hair and he said, very carefully and calmly, “There is never any excuse for a man to hit a woman—any woman—let alone one he professes to love.”

She was quiet a moment, just basking in his gentle strength.

Then she took a breath and continued. “The next time I saw her, she was expecting a child and she was so happy, Apollo. I began to think I’d been wrong. That her husband had realized how sweet Kitty was and had vowed to never hurt her again. That was what she told me, at least, and I wanted—truly—to believe her.”

He’d stiffened when she’d spoken of Kitty’s pregnancy and he made a sound like an exclamation hastily cut off.

“I was so naïve,” she whispered.

“You…” He stopped, his voice shaking. “You weren’t to blame, no matter what happened.”

She just shook her head. If she’d argued more strongly, appealed to Kitty’s instinctive motherly feelings… but she hadn’t.

She hadn’t.

Lily took his hand, squeezing it. “Kitty came to us one night, very late. She woke us—Edwin, Maude, and me—by pounding at the door. Mother had passed by this point, and Edwin was only staying with us in rather cramped rooms because he’d lost all his money at cards. Maude was the one who opened the door. When I heard her scream, I leaped from my bed. Kitty…” She bit her lip, breathing harshly, trying to fight down sobs.

“You don’t have to tell me,” he said, low. “You don’t have to tell me.”

She shook her head violently and gasped, “You won’t understand completely otherwise. She… she was all over blood. I don’t know how she’d managed to come to us, but she loved her baby very much.” She inhaled, choking on a sob. “Very much.”

“God,” he groaned, holding her, rocking her now. “Oh, my darling girl.”

“He’d beaten her quite badly. One eye was closed completely, the other swollen so much…” She caught her breath. “Even had she lived it would’ve scarred her. I’m not sure she ever would’ve been able to see again from the closed eye. Something was wrong with her cheek and her nose was flattened into her face. She had to breathe through her mouth, and Apollo, oh, Apollo, some of the blood came from inside her. She was bleeding. Her baby was coming.”

He pressed her face to his cheek and she realized it was damp. He was weeping for a woman he’d never known. Weeping for her pain.

“There wasn’t time to call a midwife. Maude… Maude was a wonder. She got Kitty on my bed and put clothes beneath her and she scolded Edwin until he pulled himself together enough to help. He shouldn’t’ve been there, of course, but I don’t think Kitty knew at the last. She fainted and Maude said… said…”

She covered her face with her hands then, the old, old grief and shock overcoming her. Kitty, poor Kitty. She’d been so pretty, so vivacious, and now all Lily could remember of her was a bloody, beaten face. It wasn’t fair. It simply wasn’t fair.

“Hush, my love, my love, hush,” Apollo murmured into her hair, rocking her like a babe.

“I’m sorry,” she said, wiping her face with the heels of her hands. Her nose was running and her eyes were red, she knew. This wasn’t what he’d come for tonight, an ugly, weeping woman.

“Don’t,” he said sharply and she jerked and looked at him for the first time in minutes. His eyes were bloodshot. “Don’t,” he said more gently. “Don’t apologize for what that monster did and how it hurt you.”