"Elyse?" Her grandmother looked back at her hesitantly. "Are you coming, dear?"
"Yes!" she breathed out, her heart quickening. An almost uncontrollable exhilaration ran along her nerve endings. Home...
It was insane, or perhaps it was fatigue after the strain of the last two days; but for some unknown reason, Elyse felt she had truly come home. It was as if she'd returned from a very long journey, and now the house welcomed her. But that was impossible. A house wasn't like a person, with feelings and emotions. Yet she felt it just the same; a sort of beckoning in the craggy stones and shining glass, a warmth of familiarity that left her almost weak. Even before she'd looked out the window, she'd known exactly what the house would look like.
"I've been here before," she whispered to herself, convinced of it. She heard Jerrold's impatient reminder and reached for the handle of the door. Inexplicably, she felt angered by the intrusion. Then she silently chided herself. Of course, she knew what Fair View would look like. Surely Jerrold or her grandmother had described it to her. As she stepped from the coach, her gaze immediately went to the paned window and the crimson rose patterned in the glass.
The rose was his promise to me.Unbidden, the words filled her thoughts.
"You promised," she whispered, staring transfixed at the single fragile bloom. Without knowing the reason, it occurred to her there was something wrong with the design in the glass pane. She stared up at it, trying to understand what it was that bothered her about it.
"Elyse, please. My other guests are waiting!" Jerrold reminded her impatiently.
"Yes, of course," she murmured in response, reaching down to lift the hem of her gown as she stepped forth. All at once, she remembered what it was that disturbed her about that single pane of glass. Her head came up, vivid blue eyes fastened once more on the simple leaded design.
"There was supposed to be a white rose," she said, causing several heads to turn in her direction.
Jerrold quickly retraced his steps and firmly seized her elbow.
"What the devil are you talking about? Everyone is watching." He leaned close, and his voice was tight.
"Elyse, please come along. Now!" he instructed from between thinned lips.
Memories, bittersweet and illusive, whispered across her soul. A red rose was symbolic of passion. A white rose represented love that was true and enduring.
There should have been a white rose entwined with the red one. He promised me the white rose, symbolic of his love.
"Elyse! Try to get hold of yourself. Are you feeling ill?"
"Ill?" She looked at Jerrold as if she were only just seeing him for the first time.
Jerrold forcefully pulled her up the steps.
It was hardly necessary. She wanted to see everything. This land, this house, the ancient stones and glass were somehow still dearly familiar, were reaching out to her with illusive memories from another time and place.
"Do come along," he muttered under his breath.
"Yes," Elyse whispered, her eyes again going to that glass pane with the single red rose, almost as if she were looking for something...
Or someone.
Ten
Elyse squeezed her eyes shut. I must have been insane, she thought as she hid deeper in the thick downy coverlet of the bed.
She could hear Katy moving quietly about the room, putting away the last of her clothes, straightening things, and then the faint clink of the silver service from last night's dinner as it was picked up for removal from the room.
Good heavens! Why did the woman have to be so slow. Usually, she flew about like a whirlwind, accomplishing in a very short time what normally took anyone else several hours. Elyse silently ground her teeth. If Katy didn't finish soon, she'd come right out of that bed and give everything of her well-planned charade away.
Then where will you be? she chided herself. The answer came quickly enough. You'll be out with everyone else, riding to hounds this morning and very possibly meeting up with St. James. That possibility was the only thing keeping her snug in bed, pretending to have a dreadful headache and a case of the sniffles.
Earlier, when she'd had Katy inform her grandmother that she wasn't feeling at all well, the response from all camps had been predictable. She'd never lied, discounting little childhood fibs, and hated deceiving her grandmother. Lady Regina had immediately come to her room.
Elyse had seen the worry and concern on her lined face and had felt dreadful for it. But Jerrold was an entirely different matter.
He'd insisted on seeing her to express his concern. Now, she might be good at disguises, but outright lying was a different matter. Jerrold was attentive and solicitous, yet underneath the pleasant demeanor she'd sensed his irritation. And while they were alone for a few minutes, when her grandmother went downstairs to find Katy, he'd very bluntly informed her that he was disappointed in her. After all, he'd said, she was always so healthy and vital. With a disdainful sniff, he'd told her in no uncertain terms that he sincerely hoped this wouldn't continue after the wedding. His mother had been sickly for a long time, and he openly admitted that suffering through the same thing in a wife was completely unacceptable.
The nerve of him! Standing there in her room and handing down edicts like some pompous, imperious ass! A thought flashed through her mind; the shorter the time until the wedding, the more overbearing and downright supercilious he was becoming. In short, he was almost rude to her now.
