Barrett looked up at him. “You love her, don’t you?” he asked, a note of wonder in his voice.
“More than my life.”
“What happens to her now?”
“She will wake up tomorrow night as a new vampire. I will teach her what she needs to know. If she will have me after what I have done, I will spend the rest of my life caring for her.”
”What if she hates you?”
Stefan blew out a breath that came from the very depths of his soul. Looking at his future without her in it was like looking into an endless abyss. There was no answer there, or anywhere else. “Come,” he said. “I will take you back home. I hope you and your family will not turn your backs on Bryony now, when she needs you the most.”
Barrett rose. Stefan had never seen a man who looked so wounded, so lost.
“She was to marry this evening,” Barrett murmured. “Even now, the family is getting ready. I don’t know what I’ll tell Maida.” He shook his head. “This is allmyfault. If I had just let her marry you, none of this would have happened.”
Stefan swore under his breath, then extended his arm.
Barrett stared at the vampire for a moment, then grasped Stefan’s forearm, wondering how he was going to explain to his wife and children that Bryony was no longer human. How would his daughter react to her changed state? His youngest child had always been a picky eater, he thought, with a grimace.
But there would only be one choice on the menu from this day on.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Bryony woke slowly. It took her a moment to realize she was in the bedchamber in the Stone House in the valley. She smiled faintly, remembering the first rainy night she had come upon the place. And met the strange man who owned it.
She jackknifed into a sitting position. What day was it? Had she missed Veronica’s wedding? And her own? She frowned as memories swirled through her mind with no rhyme or reason. None of them made sense.
She was in love with Stefan but she was marrying Bloodworth the Bald to keep her father out of debtor’s prison. She was in Stefan’s house, but where was Stefan? And why did she feel so strange? She felt light, as if she could float through the air. The thought made her giggle.
What was she doing here? Was she dreaming?
All amusement fled her mind as a vivid image of Lord Bloodworth in silk pajamas flitted through her mind. She had a vague memory of going to his house. To his chambers. She had begged him to annul their marriage.
He had refused.
He had dragged her into his bedchamber. She remembered being desperately afraid, pleading for him to let her go but her cries had fallen on deaf ears, until she raked her nails down his cheeks and drew blood.
In retaliation, he had struck her across the face and she had fallen…
Bryony lifted a hand to the back of her head. The last thing she remembered before slipping into oblivion was seeing Stefan appear like an avenging angel, his face twisted with rage as he grabbed a poker and brought it crashing down on Bloodworth’s head. Suddenly frightened, she threw back the covers and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Stefan. Where was Stefan? Frantic, she screamed his name. And he was there, sitting beside her, his strong arms around her waist, drawing her trembling body against his own, his hand lightly stroking her hair as he whispered words of comfort in her ear.
Relief washed over her. Stefan was here. Everything would be all right now. Several minutes passed before her trembling ceased.
“Feeling better?” Stefan asked.
She nodded. “It was just a bad dream, wasn’t it? Lord Bloodworth, he isn’t really dead, is he?” If it wasn’t true, why was she here instead of at home? Why did Stefan look so serious? “You killed him, didn’t you?”
He didn’t answer right away, and then he inclined his head. “I did.”
“He hit me.”
“Yes.”
“What am I doing here?”
Releasing his hold on her, he stood and put some distance between them. “I have something to tell you and I thought it was best done here, where we first met.” And because he couldn’t take her home and he hadn’t wanted her to wake up in a strange place.
A shiver of apprehension slid down Bryony’s spine and she folded her arms across her breasts, certain she didn’t want to hear whatever it was he had to say.
