Ashton didn't spend much time at home with Nicole during the next week while she recovered. His heart couldn't take it. But he heard from his servants that her father and brother had visited her. In a way, Ashton wished he could have been there to finally meet them. But then if he had, she would have tried to soften his heart. And right now, he didn't want it softened.
It had been a while since he'd allowed a woman to crawl into his heart because the last one he let do that shattered it to pieces. Just as Nicole had done. Of course, the situation was different, but the pain was just as disturbing. The betrayal was as real today as it had been when he was in his twenty-second year, looking forward to his nuptials.
After all of these years, he wondered why he hadn't seen Agatha Carlton's
