Chapter 6
Then he turned to Katherine, and there was something uneasy in his expression.
“Samantha really can’t handle blood,” he said. “And we’re not far from home anyway. Why don’t you just walk back?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he seemed to realize how wrong they sounded. He avoided Katherine’s eyes.
If this had happened before, the old Katherine would have been shattered. She would have felt as though her chest had been split open. She would have cried and asked him whether he had ever, even once, made room for her in his heart.
But now she only felt a deep, unsurprised stillness.
Of course he had chosen Samantha.
Hadn’t he always?
Katherine nodded once. She said nothing more and turned toward the rain.
“Wait.”
Nicholas called out again.
She looked back.
He bent down and picked up something by the carriage step, then held it out to her.
“Your pendant. It fell.”
It was a small white jade pendant carved in the shape of a leaf.
For the first time since seeing him and Samantha together, a ripple finally crossed Katherine’s face.
She reached for it almost immediately and closed her fingers tightly around it.
“Thank you,” she said, and there was the faintest trace of urgency in her voice. “Good thing you found it.”
Nicholas looked at her, then at the pendant.
Something sharp and unpleasant stirred in his chest.
A moment ago, she had seen him in another woman’s arms and barely blinked. But for this tiny, unremarkable piece of jade, she had finally shown real emotion.
“Is it that important?” he asked.
Katherine paused, then smiled.
It was a small smile, but unlike any expression he had seen on her all day, it held actual warmth.
“Yes,” she said. “It’s very important.”
“Why?”
She looked at the pendant in her palm.
“Because it was a gift from the man I’m going to marry.”