“You most certainly need somebody to look after you.”
Ilouka hid her face against his shoulder.
“There is – no one who will help me – but you,” she sobbed. “I-I could not – marry one of those stupid – young men.”
“Why could you not marry one of them?”
Because he was holding her and she could cry against him, Ilouka found it so comforting that she could answer him quite naturally.
“I don’t love him – how could I when I – ”
She stopped, realising that for the moment he had seemed impersonal, just someone safe and secure and she had almost betrayed herself.
“What were you going to say?” the Earl asked.
“N-nothing – it is not – important.”
“I think it was,” he replied, “and if you lie to me again, Ilouka, I shall be very angry.”
“No – please don’t be – angry with me – I cannot – bear
