"I believe he did, in his own way. But you must understand, she was a bright, sparkling thing when he first knew her. And Charles Barrington always liked to surround himself with bright, pretty objects."
"A possession," Elyse murmured, understanding only too well.
"Perhaps, but I think he was always secretly in love with her. But she had loved only one man, and when she couldn't be with him, her life became an empty shell. The woman you see in that portrait ceased to exist. It was as if she died when Alex died."
"How did it happen." Elyse asked.
"It was expected. And to be very honest, it was almost a blessing."
"A blessing? How can you say that? I think it's dreadful when any living thing dies. But especially someone so beautiful."
Her grandmother stroked her cheek. "I know you do, my dear. But that's because you're full of life and hope, and love." She added the last tentatively, then quickly went on.
"Life is not the same when a person doesn't have those. It's what gives it all a purpose, a meaning."
"I remember how I felt when I heard the news. It was just after the shipwreck. Ceddy and I were at Land's End. Everything was so difficult then. No survivors had been found in two days. The weather was frightful." Her eyes misted as she remembered that day almost twenty years earlier.
"Everyone said it was no use. It was the worst storm anyone could remember in years. But I knew." She smiled lovingly at Elyse. "I knew, if they just kept looking..." Lady Regina composed herself. "I didn't realize it at the time, of course."
"Realize what?" Elyse held her grandmother's hand tightly. "It was afternoon. But I remember the sky was dark as night. The coachman had lit the lanterns. Ceddy tried to get me to go back to the inn. It was then that Quimby came over the edge of that cliff with a bundle clutched in his arms. The poor man was half-dead himself. But when they pried the bundle from his frozen hands, I knew I'd never seen anything so near death."
"Quimby found me," Elyse replied what she'd been told, her eyes going to the painting once more.
"Everyone thought he was too late. There didn't seem to be a breath of life in you. But I refused to accept it. We took you back to the inn. The doctor from the village looked after you." Lady Regina hesitated, her voice catching oddly.
"What is it?" It was a story she'd heard several times.
"You need to know. Perhaps it will help you understand how very special you are to me." Lady Regina looked up at the portrait.
"The physician said you were as well as dead." Her voice was hollow with remembered pain. "He said it was impossible that anyone could be in the water that long and survive. But I refused to believe it. I'd lost my son and your dear mother. I wasn't going to lose you as well. To this day I don't know whether it was a miracle or just your determination to live. But within days there was a change in you, and I knew you were going to live.
"I kept watch over you and I said countless prayers. You were still terribly weak, but the fever broke, and you were much stronger. It was then that we had the news from London that Felicia had died."
"It happened at the same time that you began to recover." Lady Regina looked at her granddaughter. "I'm not a superstitious woman, but I do believe that something happened in that moment when she was lost and you grew stronger. It was almost as if your life was beginning just as hers was ending." She patted Elyse's hand tenderly.
"Somehow it helped ease an old woman's grief. I'd lost a dear friend, but I'd gained someone very special."
Elyse looked up at the portrait. "Do you believe in love that lasts forever?"
Lady Regina pondered that question at great length. "I know I continued to love your grandfather after he was gone. Part of me still does."
"That's how I feel about mother and father. I don't remember very much about them. But I know they loved me and that I loved them. I'm talking about a different kind of love, one that happens only once in a great while but lasts forever."
"Well, certainly when we're young we tend to believe it will be love forever. And perhaps some do. There are no certainties about what happens when we leave this life. I'd hate to think there's nothing at all." Lady Regina smiled thoughtfully.
"I wonder if they found one another." Elyse's eyes softened as she stared at the portrait of Felicia Barrington.
"My goodness, what are you talking about?"
"Do you think Felicia and Alex ever found each other again?"
Her grandmother's eyes grew misty as she pondered that romantic notion. "If it's possible, they would find each other. They loved each other that much."
"He promised he would come back," Elyse added.
Regina stared at her granddaughter. "He did promise her that." She smiled uncertainly, seeing that Elyse seemed suddenly very sad.
"Whatever is wrong?" she asked. "I never meant to upset you."
