I woke to a hot stripe of sunlight on my face and a cool compress upon my brow.
“Finally,” Mertensia said with obvious relief. “I thought you would never come round. We were afraid you might have hit your head upon one of the rocks, but we could find no injury.”
“I drowned,” I said, levering myself to a sitting position. The room swam about me, spinning like a child’s top. Mertensia pushed me back none too gently.
“Youalmostdrowned,” she corrected. “You went under twice before they pulled you out.”
“They?” I asked, the losses of that terrible night crashing over me with the weight of a mountain.
“The men from the village,” she told me. “They took a boat out to bring you and Tiberius back from the rock. Whatever made you decide to venture out there is quite beyond me, but they launched a rescue boat.”
“How did they know?” I asked her in confusion.
“Why, Stoker told them,” she said evenly.
Blood rushed to my head, pounding in my ears. “Stoker?”
“Yes,” she said with a benign slowness, as if she were speaking to abackwards child. “He swam back to St. Maddern’s, God only knows how he managed it. He landed on the beach half-dead and then roused the men with the summoning bell. They had a devil of a time putting to sea—it was the highest tide of the year, you know. And they don’t like to be out on the sea on such a night. But he swore and bullied and threatened them until they launched.”
“He is alive,” I said stupidly. I turned my head to see Chester sitting on the bedside table. One ear was a little lower than it had been, set now at a jaunty angle, and his eyes were different. The beads had been black before but now they shone, winking dark blue in the morning sunlight. I turned back to Mertensia.
She rolled her eyes. “Isn’t that what I have been saying?”
“And Tiberius?”
“Downstairs, eating his second breakfast since he had no dinner. The pair of you had drifted apart by the time the rescue boat arrived. They were able to recover him more quickly because he was directly in their path. You were carried a little distance away and quite unconscious by the time they pulled you from the sea. Old Trefusis himself administered the necessary remedies and I am told he quite enjoyed it,” she added with a sly smile. “And then you vomited up half the sea on him and he was rather less enchanted. But you were still unconscious when they carried you in, and Stoker ordered you put to bed with hot bricks and ladled whisky down your throat until you slept easily. He said rest was the best cure for you.”
“What time is it?” I asked, scarcely able to take in everything she had told me.
“Nearly gone noon. And the weather has cleared at last, nothing but glorious sun and clear skies,” she said, flinging the curtains back fully. The single patch of golden light burst into an unbearable brightness that illuminated the entire room.
“I have to dress,” I told her. She tried to prevent me, but I forced my way past her and she eventually lent a hand, muttering all the while.
“I could make you a restorative,” she suggested.
I buttoned my cuffs and tucked Chester into my pocket. “Where is Mrs. Trengrouse?”
She shrugged. “I do not know. First Malcolm and now Trenny. I do not know what strange happenings are at work here, but I hope soon to have an end to them.”
“You will,” I promised her. I flung open the door and rushed down to the breakfast room, taking the stairs as quickly as I dared.
Tiberius was, as she had told me, sitting in state, helping himself to plates of eggs and kidneys and piles of toast. As soon as I appeared in the doorway, he rose. He came to me, his expression a mixture of relief and something more. “My dear Veronica,” he murmured. “You are looking a fair sight better than when last I saw you.”
I grinned in spite of myself. He held out his hand, but I pushed past it and went to embrace him. His arms came around me and he murmured into my hair. “We are more than family now, I think.”
“More than family,” I agreed. “Where is Stoker?”
He resumed his breakfast, taking his seat at the table and buttering a fresh piece of toast. “He took himself off to the village to thank the lads who came out last night.”
I plucked the toast from his fingers and headed for the door. “More than family,” I reminded him as he protested.
•••
I met Stoker on the path from the castle to the village. I was fairly flying down the hill, my skirts gathered in my hands, when I rounded a bend and there he was, suddenly before me. I strode towards him, not slowing my pace. I came upon him like a cataclysm, taking his face in mine and raining kisses upon him until we were both short of breath as if we had run a footrace.
“Veronica,” he said at last, his expression so full of emotion I could notspeak for the fullness of it. I put my arms about him and pressed my face to his chest. “Don’t. Not yet,” I pleaded. “Tell me something mundane.”
A low laugh rumbled through his chest and I felt his lips upon my hair. “Very well. I have just been to see the village men. To thank them for their courage and skill last night.”
