"I didn't know you'd been in an accident until the day you walked into my hospital room. I would never have stood there watching you suffer, and if I'd known you were in the hospital, no force in heaven or hell would have kept me from your bedside, because, although you'd treated me like something to be scraped off the bottom of your boot, I still loved you so damned much!" She began to say something but he held up his hand.

"No. You've had your say; it's only fair that I get a turn to defend myself against this. .. this slight! I never expected you to come running...