“This was different. You couldn’t see the thing you loved hurt. It wasn’t fear. It was affection.”
“Oh, don’t gloss it over. I know what you felt. I saw it in your eyes.”
“Saw what?”
“Contempt.”
She turned on him. “You didn’t. Perhaps, just at first. I didn’t understand....” She fought for self-control, but in spite of it, the tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Don’t, Janey, don’t.” He was in an agony of remorse. “I’ve made you cry.”
She blinked away the tears. “It wasn’t contempt, Evans.”
“Well, it should have been. Why not? No man who calls himself a man would have let you do it.”
They had come to the path under the pines, and were alone in that still world. Jane tucked her hand in the crook of Evans’ arm. “Dear boy, stop thinking about it.”
“I shall never stop.”