'Roman, please stop! Your mother would never approve!'
'Whom do you think it was that opened my eyes, eh? That night I made you disrobe in front of me, she laid down the law! She made me see that I would never have done that with a guest or a stranger. She knew, even as I did not, that I had loved you since I first saw you weeping in the meadow like a forlorn little sylph who had sprung right out of the ground. Yes, love! Is that such a shocking word?'
Instead of being elated, Kara stood writhing before him, trembling with conflicting emotions that felt as though they might physically tear her apart. 'You can't love me! You mustn't! My father will destroy it! He will destroy both of us! No, Roman, don't touch me! I must go away! He will hurt you! He will hurt all of you, and it will have been my fault! I can't- no, don't-'
But he had taken her in his arms, and as though her will were no longer her own, she accepted his embrace for a long moment, clinging to him with raw desperation, sobbing as though she were drowning. At once, she thrust herself away from him, fled blindly to a fallen log, fell to her knees and heaved the contents of her stomach. Roman knelt beside her, but she flinched away from his touch, feeling faint.
'Please, don't touch me, Roman! I . . . I can't stand it!'
'It is not weakness to need my love and my protection,' he told her quietly with a tenderness she would never have expected from him, 'and as far as your father's wrath is concerned . . .' his humourless chuckle sent a thrill of apprehension down her spine. 'We Castellans have survived many generations of the grasping depredations of those of the nouveau riche who are without honour or principle. We are not invincible of course; only a fool would make such a claim! But we are resourceful and enduring, and time itself has always been our greatest ally. If your father is such a small man that the very notion of his daughter's freedom from his domination, and her subsequent happiness, can wholly topple his judgement, then his legacy will be short-lived, and the house of cards he has built will one day come toppling down about his head, brought down by his own hand.'
'I- I want to believe your words,' she choked, 'but I can't! He is evil, Roman! I have looked into his eyes and seen the Devil Himself! It's like staring down the muzzle of a loaded gun!'