I jumped in surprise, tipping my plate forward and spilling eggs and sausage down the front of my dress. Color flared in my cheeks as I turned to meet a group of older ladies in their Regency finery. I hadn’t realized how close I’d been leaning over the food in my attempt to read the labels. “Oh, right, sorry.”
“Leave her alone,” Heathcliff glowered at the dowagers. “She’s blind.”
I bristled at Heathcliff’s words. “I’m not blind. I’m only partially—”
“I don’t care if she’s blind, deaf, and dumb, it’s unhygienic.”
“Don’t you dare speak to Mina like that.” Storms brewed in Heathcliff’s eyes.
“It’s fine.” I shoved my plate into Heathcliff’s hands. “I have to go clean up, anyway.”
“Mina—”
I raced from the room, keeping my eyes glued on the floor, not wanting to see if anyone followed me. In the bathroom, I dabbed at the front of my dress with a wad of toilet paper, but that only spread the stains across my chest. As I glared at my reflection in the mirror, a flash of green neon light flashed across my vision.
“Aaaaarrrrh!” I gripped the edge of the sink and stared at myself in the mirror. I couldn’t see the labels on the chafing dishes.
I remembered Lydia’s weird look when I was looking at David’s coins the other day. I hadn’t even noticed how close I was leaning in to look at things. My cheeks burned with embarrassment.I’ve been making a fool of myself in front of everyone, sniffing the coins, breathing on the food…
This is my father’s legacy.
A corner of his note stuck out of the top of my bra. I pulled it out and smoothed it on the edge of the sink. A tear rolled down the side of my face as I read over the words. It dropped onto the border of leaping animals, smudging the ink.
Who are you, Father? Why couldn’t you have been there from the beginning? Maybe if you had been, I wouldn’t have to go through this alone.
The bathroom door banged behind me. I jumped, my heart pounding. “I’m fine,” I dabbed at my face with the wet tissue. “Just trying to get this bloody eyelash out of my eye.”
“Mina.”
At the sound of Heathcliff’s dark, gravelly voice, I dropped the tissue into the sink. My hands trembled harder.Get a hold of yourself, Mina.
“You’re not supposed to be in here.” I didn’t turn around. I couldn’t move. But in the mirror, I could just make out the edges of his silhouette, his black clothes and dark features camouflaged in the shadow of the door. “This is the ladies bathroom.”
“I don’t care,” Heathcliff growled. “I had to see you.”
“I’m fine. I just can’t get this blasted stain out of my dress.”
Heathcliff stepped forward, standing under the downlight, throwing his body into full view. The shadows on his face etched a story of pain.
“Don’t do this,” he growled. “If you choose this path, you’ll live to regret it.”
“What?”
“Don’t be driven low by petty people and their prejudice and hatred.” Heathcliff’s hands balled into fists. “Don’t take all that rage and turn it inward, until you hate yourself so much you become incapable of feeling anything else. You’re no monster, Mina. This path is not for you. I’d leave you before I drag you down into the darkness with me.”
My chest tightened. I spun around to face him, to stare down this wonderful man who believed he was a monster. Heathcliff’s eyes bore into me, full of storms and ghosts.
“You were always more than the darkness,” I whispered. “Before I even met you, you, Heathcliff, were the first true hero I had. On my bleakest days, I looked to your love for Cathy and believed that one day someone could love me like that.”
“You call thatlove?” he spat. “It is nothing but a wild, maddening, dangerous passion.”
“If you don’t think that’s love, then what is?” I faced him. “Love isn’t this high, noble act reserved for sedate dances and quiet moments. Real love is primal, and savage, and human.”
“What are you saying?” Heathcliff demanded, sweeping across the room to press his body against mine. His heart thudded against my chest, perfectly in time with mine.
“I’m saying that if it’s monstrous to love you, then I will happily become that monster,” I shot back, my arms trembling. “Because I love you.”
I barely got the words out when Heathcliff mashed his mouth against mine, sweeping me into his arms. We slammed against the wall. My elbow hit the hand dryer, but I barely felt it, so enraptured was I with Heathcliff’s fire and with the surge of emotion welling inside me.
