Anne's POV

The guards were allowing them to have a break, so Anne and Andrew both sat down with their backs to the wall. Anne looked at her palm. After two days in the mine, her hands were covered in mine dust and blisters. She rubbed the worst blister very carefully, hoping it wouldn't break open and get infected. 

She'd managed to get close enough to some of the younger children to talk to them. That morning, a little girl had hurt her finger with a pick. When she started crying, Anne walked over to her and comforted her. The guards yelled at her, but she ignored him, until he threatened to beat the little girl. Then she moved away, smiling and reassuring the little girl that her finger would be all right. She even smiled back at her. 

Andrew turned towards her. He held out his hand as if he wanted to see her palm. Without thinking, she laid her hand in his. He held it to his face and then brought it to his lips and kissed the back of her hand.

She snatched her hand away from him.

Part of her wished she didn't pull her hand away so he would kiss her hand again or holding it for as long as he wanted.

But that was stupid. He needed to know he couldn't just kiss her hand. 

Andrew whispered, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that."

Why was he even thinking about kissing her hand? They've been living together for days now. They slept next to each other at night, and the first day, she slept with her head on his shoulder, although not on purpose. But he had never tried to touch her or kiss her.

"I didn't mean to scare you."

"Forget about it. It was nothing."

"I would never do anything to hurt you. What did Arthur do to you?"

She looked in his eyes but didn't say anything. 

"We've survived wolf attacks, worked together, and taken care of each other. We're friends, right?"

"I guess."

"Then tell me."

Something inside of her wanted to tell him, but the distrustful side of her said otherwise. But what could it hurt. He had never taken advantage of her the way others had tried to.

"If I tell you, then you have to promise me not to tell anyone else. And you have to tell me something you've never told anyone else."

"Fair enough."

"Okay then." She had kept this secret for so many years. She used to feel ashamed , but she knew none of it was her fault.

Andrew made her feel protected, and safe and something told her that Andrew wouldn't blame her for what happened, as she had always feared would happen if she told someone.

"I was six when my mother married Arthur." She whispered so that only Andrew could hear her. "My mother was a single mother with no money. My father died when I was five and he owed a lot of money,  most of it to Arthur. Arthur used that debt to persuade my mother to marry him. I didn't like Arthur from the beginning. He was always forcing himself on my mother, kissing and touching her when she obviously didn't want him to. Sometimes he would hit me, but only when Mother wasn't looking. When we were around others, he would speak of how much he loved Mother and me, making himself look like some great savior of poor widows and orphans for marrying my mother. The first time I saw him hit my mother, I told him I was going to tell everyone what he did. He hit me and said if I ever told anyone, he would kill my mother and it would all be my fault. I was ten at that time."

"I'm so sorry," Andrew said when she paused. The compassion in his eyes made her lean closer to him.

"When I was twelve, he started to come in my bedroom at night. At first he would tell my stories. Then he came into my room, but not to tell my stories, but something worse."

A knot tightened in her chest. She'd never told anyone about that, not even her mother. Andrew's face was full of anger and concern, she had to look at the floor so he didn't see the tears.

"After a couple of months, I hid a knife under my pillow. When he came in, I took it out and told him I would kill him if he touched me. He laughed and grabbed my wrist. I pushed my hand up and the knife touched his chin. He let me go. After that, he stopped coming into my room, but his guards started to stare at me, brush against me, and make comments to me. I always pretended I wasn't afraid of them, and if my mother was nearby, I would yell for her and tell her they were frightening me. They mostly stopped after my mother demanded Arthur force them not to bother me anymore. They never physically hurt me, but they destroyed my little-girl innocence, and from that point on, I was always afraid of anyone who got too close."

Andrew whispered, "Why would Arthur ever do that to you? And allow those men to harass you, especially when you were only a child. I'm going to kill him."

"There were so many times I wanted to run away, but I was afraid of what he would do to my mother if I left. I thought about killing him. I even made a plan. But I didn't do it because I knew it would hurt my mother. She didn't want to believe bad things about Arthur. It made me sick, but I had to accept that she actually loved him."

"Do you think she still loves him?"

"Maybe not as much as she did then. I should've done a favor and killed Arthur in his sleep."

She wanted him to give her comfort by holding her hand, or putting his arms around her, but there was still a bit of fear inside her stopping her.

"I'm so sorry that happened to you."

When he touched her fingers, she didn't pull away. There was still a tiny voice telling her Andrew was someone she shouldn't trust, but there was a louder voice that trusted him.

"Now it's your turn to tell me something you've never talked about." She smiled, knowing Andrew wouldn't like this part of the bargain. 

Just as she thought, he frowned.

He cleared his throat and pulled his hand away from hers. "When I was a kid, my brother David and I were playing with another boy. His father was a shepherd who worked for my father. His father told him not to chase the sheep, but me, being the arrogant little kid, convinced him it would be okay if we only chased two of the sheep and we would bring them back and his father would never know. But they went too far. We tried to stop them, but they fell of a cliff and died when they hit the bottom."

"That's bad."

"It gets worse. I... Are you sure you want to hear this?"

Her heart sank. Would his story shock her or cause her to judge him for his bad choices? But she said, "I'm sure it can't be that bad. You were a kid, right?"

"I was nine."

"I won't judge you for something you did when you were nine. Please continue."

"The kid started to cry and said his father would beat him and kill him. David and I told him his father wouldn't do that. Later that day, David wanted to tell our father how afraid the boy was and what we did, but I convinced him not to." He took a ragged breath. "But it was a mistake. A very bad mistake."

"What happened?"

"The next day, the kid was beaten to death. The father was gone. No one saw him again." He didn't look at her. "I caused a child's death."

She wanted to comfort him, but her hands stayed by her side. "You didn't cause that child's death, Andrew."

"But I did."

"That's a horrible thing to carry around. You were only a child. That man who beat his own son to death deserves the blame, not you. You need to stop carrying the guilt around." She put her hand on his arm.

"I deserve to carry it. David carried it too, even though it was mine to carry, not his."

"Get up!" a guard yelled "Get back to work. Your break is over."

She quickly pulled away her hand, which began to feel too comfortable on his arm, and they went back to work.

Something had shifted. Something deep inside of her was leaning towards Andrew. And she wasn't sure if it was a good thing... or a very bad thing.

A/N Note: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! What do you think about Anne and Andrew's relationship getting closer?

What do you think about Arthur?

And what do you think about the guilt that Andrew carried around ever since he was nine? Should he listen to Anne and stop carrying around the guilt?

Feel free to leave your concerns and comments!