“I can’t help you.”
She turned away from him and muttered something about taking the wrong path. Hitting her clenched fists against her legs in protest, she swung back around. “Do you have kin, my lord? Do you have someone you care for, someone you would do anything to save?”
“I have no one.” The words were not said to incite pity, and he felt anger flare when her gaze softened.
Mrs. Shaw gave a weak smile and shuffled further back into the shadows.
The lady simply stared at him. “Well, there must have been someone once, someone you cared for?”
Alexander considered the question. He’d had a mother who lavished gifts and attention on her lovers, a father who appeared indifferent and a whole host of women he’d barely even liked.
“No,” he repeated, aware that his tone sounded cold.
“Oh. I see. Well, I do have one person who means the world to me, and she is currently lying in an upturned carriage, teetering on the brink of death.”
Alexander knew how it felt to waver between the two worlds, to feel the icy pull of death sucking him under while he struggled to cling on.
“And I would do anything to save her,” she continued.
“As I said, my groom will escort you to the inn. You’ll find a —”
“Why won’t you help me?” Her eyes brimmed with tears, and he could feel her frustration. “Outwardly, you may not look like the monster everyone believes you to be. But a man with no heart surely hides a monster within.”
She looked shocked upon uttering the words, and his attention was drawn to the full lips responsible for forming them. If only she knew the truth lurking within her statement. It was the monster inside he was trying so desperately to keep at bay.
Refusing to accept his decision, she thrust her arm out and grabbed his sleeve. “Please, I implore you, my lord. You must help me.”
The touch of her innocent fingers caused the fire in his blood to rage. But it felt different. The urge to drink from her, to feel the thick, warm liquid coat his tongue and throat was tempered by another feeling — an obscure need to comfort and protect.
It rocked him to his core.
In the last two years, he’d never felt anything close, most human emotions being a distant memory. So why now? Why this particular lady? Perhaps he’d not lost everything, after all. Perhaps his humanity was still trapped inside the body of a beast, waiting to be released, waiting for an opportunity to reveal itself.
If he let this lady leave, he would never know.
“Very well,” he suddenly said, driven by an overwhelming desire to test the theory. “I will see what I can do.”
The lady gave a relieved gasp, which was nothing compared to Mrs. Shaw’s shocked expression as she hovered in the background.
“You will wait here while —”
“But I will need to show you where to go. It’s dark out. You’ll never find your way.”
Alexander did not need her help. He would have no problem following the scent of blood or the smell of death.
“I move too quickly. You will never keep up.”
“I will.”
“You’ll be a hindrance.”
“I won’t.”
“Stay here.” It was an order not a request, and he ignored her forlorn expression to take a few strides towards the door.
She rushed to his side and placed her dainty hand on his thin linen sleeve. “Please, my lord. What if it’s the last time I’ll see my aunt alive? What if I miss the chance to say goodbye?”
Alexander should have felt indifferent to her exaggerated display of sentiment, yet something deep inside him stirred. He could not argue with her logic or motive, and he found he admired her persistence.