He had tried to keep himself apart from her, to do the right thing, but the moment her arms went around him, he lost his resolve. As she slid down, he grabbed onto her, pulling her close. Her tears against his skin branded him, shaming him for failing her so completely.
"You have nothing to be sorry for. You did nothing wrong."
Still feeling that he should not be permitted to be holding her so easily after the ugly way he had behaved, he nonetheless realized that he needed to stop making matters worse, needed to stop doing more things he should not. And, if she wanted to be held, setting her away out of his own sense of guilt would be a mistake-- even if that sounded vaguely like a justification, even to his own mind. But Marian was hurting, badly, and he had to alleviate that if he could.
Leaning back and gently tilting her head so that they could make eye contact, he brushed his thumbs along her cheeks to wipe away some of her tears. "Anything that happened was not your fault. The only one in the wrong here is me, for taking out my frustration on you. Of the three of us, I'm the only one who did things I should not have in that other life. You did nothing wrong," he repeated, wanting her to realize the truth of that.