For years she had imagined him to be a slim boy with a merry laugh and dancing eyes, only to learn that he had grown into a tall man with a powerful body and an unforgettably handsome face. Yet before she could begin to assimilate the change, she found herself married to a morose and wrathful young man who had forced himself upon her in a drunken stupor, and kept a mistress besides. Then, while she was still reeling from the shock of the Countess’s death, she discovered he was haunted by the death of a mother he loved deeply, and the fear he might turn out to be like the father he despised. He was more tortured and unhappy than she had ever been. But though her mind might not know what to think, her heart felt no indecision. Learning that Gavin suffered and bled like all other mortals somehow made him seem more real, more human, and that had the unforeseen effect of virtually wiping out the nightmare of her wedding night. Her stubbornly romantic heart gathered up all the sympathetic impressions and merged them into a portrait of a man who would someday welcome her into his arms with a kiss and a laugh, and make her feel warm and secure for the rest of her life.
