“Mrs. Crell?” Meredith walked toward the woman.
“Minerva…I am Minerva once again, thanks to you.” She smiled. “He has no hold over me anymore. I am myself once again.”
“I don’t understand,” Meredith confessed.
“You don’t have to,” Minerva said. “What matters is, you set me free. It feels like I am flying once more.” She spoke a swirling trio of brightly colored butterflies danced around Minerva and she laughed, holding her hand out to them. “Simply flying…” Minerva said more softly and wistfully. She took one of Meredith’s hands in her own. “I have only one regret, that you and I had so little time to get to become friends.” She squeezed Meredith’s hand. “You will tell everyone that I once lived here?”
Meredith’s lips quivered as she understood Minerva’s question. She did not wish to be forgotten.
“I shall never forget, and I won’t let anyone else either.” The promise left a deep ache in her throat as she fought off tears.
Minerva leaned in and embraced Meredith.
“It will be all right, my dear. That man you chose will let you be free to fly…so spread your wings.”
The garden was suddenly filled with thousands of butterflies, and once they had cleared, Minerva was gone. She closed her eyes within that sad and beautiful dream, but could still smell wildflowers and distant rain.
And as she did so, she felt the kiss of a thousand butterflies wings upon her cheeks.
Minerva was right. She was free to fly.
Darius woke to the tender touch of the woman he loved, who was wiping his brow with a cold wet cloth. He did not feel feverish, but the cool cloth felt good upon his skin.
“Meredith…” he said, and she gently shushed him.
“I’m here, Darius. I’m safe. All that matters now is that you get better, so that we might get married.”
He found himself relaxing. That simple statement had assured him that all was going to be well. “Married…yes. I want that more than anything.”
Meredith smiled down at him. “As do I. Now, while I have you at my tender mercy, there are things I must say.”
He reached up to cup her cheek with his palm. “These things must be quite serious.”
“They are,” she agreed, her tone solemn. “I kept my need to catch Crell from you, and I shouldn’t have done that. I feared you had given up. Lionel explained to me that you and he had been investigating Crell’s finances.”
He stroked her cheek with his thumb. “I planned to tell you what I’d found, once I found something worth sharing. There was never a moment when I planned to give up on catching him,” Darius insisted.
“Lionel told me that too. I’m sorry I thought you had.”
“I suppose I shouldn’t have kept my intentions from you, either. But I didn’t want you to worry before I had proof.”
Meredith nodded. “I was just so accustomed to being alone or kept at a distance—even if that distance is of my own making. I’m not used to the idea of sharing my entire life with someone. You will have to be patient with me.” She stroked her fingertips along his arm, which felt simply wonderful.
“You aren’t the only one used to doing things alone. We must both endeavor to share things with each other. That is what marriage means, that we lean upon one another, trust one another.”
Meredith kissed the backs of his fingers of his hand. “I couldn’t agree more.”
“Lord, I don’t feel much pain, did you give me laudanum?” Darius chuckled at the thought for some reason. Right now it seemed anything could be amusing.
“Absolutely. Doctor’s orders,” she said with a soft laugh.
“Good. Because I wish for you to lie beside me, so that I can feel you, and hear your soft breath in the dark.”
She carefully climbed into bed beside him and tucked herself against him. He let out a breath as the last knot of tension uncoiled within him. Her hand settled just above his heart, the heart that had belonged to her the moment he’d first laid eyes on her standing on his doorstep. He drew in a deep breath, one that thankfully held no pain, and gazed up at the ceiling with a bright sense of wondrous clarity.
Loving someone was the most exquisite thing he had ever experienced in his life, and he would have the honor of loving Meredith for the rest of their lives. Through the window that faced the gardens of his home, the morning light pierced the window at just the right angle to cast a shower of rainbows and diamonds upon the walls in the room
And, for just a single instant, he saw a figure wreathed in morning light…it was a woman, a woman whose face he might have recognized, had he seen it but a second longer.
