Free Once We Were by Aundrea M Lopez Page B

answered. “But it's not in my nature to cry on someone's shoulder. I grieve  privately.”
    “ We'd better get you inside where it's warm,” Mr. Harlow changed the subject.
    “ A captial idea,” Emmett exclaimed. “I reserved rooms for us at the Artisan hotel, which I hear is exquisite for the price. Do you have any luggage you'd like me to carry?”
    “ I wasn't allowed any luggage whilst leaving the ship, but I would like to bid farewell to my host, if you don't mind.”
    “ Of course,” Emmett told her. “Take as much time as you need.”
    Cora nodded and turned away from his charming smile. She took a deep breath and gracefully ascended the stairs. She felt Emmett's eyes trace her figure. It was no surprise why he'd come.
    The house was eerily silent as she made her way through the dark cold halls. “Ioan?” He stood in the sitting room, gazing at a photograph of his father on the wall. His shoulders were stiff and rigid. No doubt Mr. Spruce stormed off in defeat. The tension could have crushed all the glass in the room.
    “ There's the bastard,” Ioan loathed. “All the money in the world, and everything he threw away, including me. It still couldn't save him.”
    “ Ioan, they're waiting for me,” Cora told him. “I came to say goodbye.”
    He didn't answer.
    Cora placed the orchid on the sofa and approached him. His eyes burned through the portrait. She touched his shoulders gently and caressed them. Anything to loosen him up. “It will be alright. Try not to think so much,” she whispered to him. He gradually relaxed. She rested her head against his back. “I can never thank you enough for what you did.”
    “ It was my duty,” he answered.
    “ Not just your duty,” she said. “I won't forget any of it.”
    She let go of him and turned to leave. “If you walk away, I'll have nothing after  this tragedy,” he told her.
    “This isn't where I belong,” she replied. “I have to go home.”
    “ I've no power to make you stay, but by God, I will try, even if I have to follow you on my knees to that buggy.”
    “ Please don't do that,” Cora said, knowing he most certainly would. “Don't complicate things. I'm going away. You'll be alright, won't you?”
    Ioan glanced out the window. Emmett glanced at his pocket watch impatiently. “Of course,” he said. “I understand now. Well, you don't want to keep him waiting.”
    “Ioan-”
    He kissed her hair. “It's like you said. I'll be alright. I wish you the best of luck, Miss Harlow.”
    “You too, Mr. Saier,” she answered. “Good luck.”
    “ Where do I go from here? Even now as I tell myself this is better for you, I fail to let you go. I nearly died out there, and I'm a man who is determined to live with no regrets. There was one regret I couldn't die with. I abandoned you. I had enough courage to jump ship, but nothing to stand up to that man I called a father. I let you go. I'll always question why. You who meant everything to me, who I'd be damned to see on another man's arm. I would trade anything for your forgiveness. I've given you my last breath, and I am willing to give much more if you asked me to. I thought you should know.”
    “ Thank you. It's worth knowing, but marriage is a symbol of a woman's success. He's a lawyer, you know. For me, that's more than I could do for myself,” Cora replied.
    “ It's more than a sailor could give you, you mean,” Ioan remarked.
    “ Time's run out. You are set in your ways and I am set in mine. We have to put away childish fantasies and accept our friendship with our departure. Maybe in another life, fate will prove kinder to us. Now will you step aside?”
    “ You little liar,” he declared. “Can you think of anything that twisted, perverted, brute has given you that will amount to one thing I have? I see it clearly in your eyes, yet you stand there and lie to me just to make it easier on yourself. I'm everything to you. It's me, Cora. I'm the better man. He won't come