“You will not die if I die.” He struggled to form the words, almost as though cotton filled his mouth. “That’s preposterous.”
He could not imagine his beautiful sister meeting the same fate the rest of their family had. Hewouldnot imagine it. In fact, he’d never allow such a thing.
“But it is not! If you die, then I know that I shall too.”
Could love be stronger than the curse he’d been living under all his life? Because he knew, with every fiber of his being, that he would not allow his sister to die.
“I won’t let you die, Christian!”
Could her love do the same for him? Was love enough? He wasn’t sure of anything anymore, but for the first time since he’d identified his brother’s lifeless body, he began to see a glimmer of hope.
Was it possible that Lillian could come to love him? He’d not been alone in his feelings. She’d felt a similar magic, he’d wager…
…his life?
He wondered how powerful love would be… and for some reason, he remembered words from long ago, words from the bible? Words his mother had recited… Words about the power of love.
‘Love hoped in all things, it believed in all things, it never failed…’He frowned. What had Lillian told him the day they’d met together with her mother?
“I am relieved to know that my husband did not lie to me. Even more importantly, I am greatly relieved to know that you are not suffering. Physically, at least. It broke my heart to think of you in pain.”
She had trusted him.
Was love enough?
“I won’t die, Bernadette. I’m not going anywhere.” Saying the words out loud, he swore to himself he’d do everything he could to make good on his promise.
Bernadette nodded against his jacket and sniffed before pushing herself away and wiping her face with a handkerchief. The two of them hadn’t demonstrated any outward sign of emotion to one another since becoming adults. They should have. He ought to have turned to her when Calvin was killed. He ought to have made it so that she was comfortable turning to him.
All sorts of awkwardness settled between them, and all he could think was that he needed to tell Lillian she had been right. And he needed to tell her it was possible he was wrong.
A flicker of hope flared into a small flame.
“Shall we join my wife for dinner, then?”
Bernadette bit her lip and then shook her head. “I will apologize to her tomorrow, if you don’t mind. I promise I’ll apologize, but I am… embarrassed.”
Already, they had talked to one another more in one night than they had in two months. They had finally communicated and managed to clear the air between them.
He needed to do the same with Lillian!
He nodded. “Shall I have a meal sent up?” He was already backing out the door.
Bernadette shook her head at his sudden anxiousness to be away from her. “That would be lovely, Christian. Go to your wife and explain to her that she is going to be stuck with you much longer than originally planned.”
It was exactly what Christian wanted to hear.
But he was to be disappointed when he returned downstairs. Lillian was not in the withdrawing room nor the library.
“She’s returned to her mother’s,” his butler informed him. “She received a missive from the duchess of Crawford.Yourduchess mentioned fetching something from her mother’s house.”
Not caring that his jacket was wet with his sister’s tears, nor that she was likely to return any moment, Christian spun on his heel and marched out the front door. He didn’t want to wait. Now that he had hope, he wanted to share it with Lillian as soon as possible.
His feet hit the walkway purposefully, his mind swirling in wonder almost. If he was going to refuse to allow the curse to have power over him, then he had to make some changes.
And those changes involved her. They involved becoming a husband in every sense of the word. Those changes involved dreaming together, planning for the future.
His ears perked at the ominous sound of drums beating a call to arms—and bells. Shouting and the sounds of hooves echoed in the distance, growing louder, before one of the fire brigades and its fire engine went tearing down the street.
