So much betrayal and hate and blame, and for what? So much tragedy. It is all of a piece, Camilla, and so close to home, but you and your husband both know that. There’s Madeline, my dearest, ask Vereker about her.
Wake up now, come back into yourself and open your eyes. All want you well again. It is enough, Camilla. WAKE UP!
His father said suddenly, “Graham, did you see that?”
Graham was on his feet in an instant. “Wh-what?”
“Her eyelids moved.”
The two men hovered over her, staring at her face, Cilly trying to shove in. She said, “Camilla Rohman, wake up! I have stitched you three new chemises!”
Vereker said, “She’s a Hepburn now, Cilly. There, again. There, again—did you see?”
Graham lightly shook her shoulders, kissed her slack mouth, the tip of her nose, nuzzled her cheek. “Come on, sweetheart, open your eyes. Tell me I’m as much a rotter asTeddy Jewel or Pilcher Gayson. Tell me I dance like an ostrich. Tell me you love me to distraction.”
She opened her eyes, whispered, “You dance like a prince.” She blinked, moaned. “Oh dear, my head, it hurts, Graham, it really hurts.”
Cilly measured out drops into water and handed Graham the glass. He set the rim against her mouth. “Drink it down, Cam, it’s laudanum. It will take away the pain.”
Graham tilted her up, slowly fed her the water. She drank and drank, panting when the glass was empty.
He pressed her back down. “Lie still, sweetheart, no, don’t talk, let the laudanum work. Everything will be all right now.” He kissed her forehead. He felt such gratitude, such blessed relief he wanted to shout with it. He smiled hugely and kissed her again. Her lips were soft from the cream he’d rubbed in.
Since she was Cam, of course she talked. “Are you all right, Graham?”
“I’m better than I have any right to be, curse you, Cam, for knocking me down.”
She smiled, a small smile, but it was real. “Mama said I acted fast. You’re blurry.”
She closed her eyes. Graham set her glasses back on. “Try again. Can you see me now?”
“Yes, but I don’t want to. I want to take a little nap.”
“I’m sorry, Cam, but you can’t sleep yet. Cilly, come here and sing to your mistress.”
For nearly an hour two men and a woman sang in lovely harmony to “Rock of Ages.”
In between their various renditions, Graham studied her face, saw her eyes clear, saw her focus on his face.
She whispered, “You have your mother’s eyes. I wish I could have known her.” She didn’t move, but turned her eyes to Vereker. “When did Madeline die, sir?”
There was a long moment of silence, then Vereker said,everyone heard the anguish in his voice, “Madeline died when Graham and Simon were boys.”
“Do you mean she was swimming? She drowned?”
There was silence for a long moment, then Vereker said, low, his voice pain-filled, “No, she took her own life.”
Graham’s head whipped up to his father’s face. “I didn’t know. I’m very sorry, sir. I assumed—But why? I don’t understand.”
Vereker swallowed, the devastating memories burning tears in his throat. “It was a long time ago, Graham, and the truth is I do not know why your mother killed herself. For several weeks before her death, I knew she was unhappy about something, but I don’t know what. I pressed her again and again, but she wouldn’t tell me what was bothering her. I blame myself for it must have been something I had done. You and Simon were so very young, both of you devastated. We were all devastated for your mother was much loved. No one knew why she would do such a thing.”
His wife dead and then his two sons taken.Cam couldn’t begin to imagine the pain, the absolute despair. She squeezed her father-in-law’s hand, really only a slight movement of her hand over his, but it was enough.
There was deep silence in the bedchamber.
When Vereker spoke again, it was as if the words were being pulled out of his mouth. “We found her facedown in the Green Stream. Her glorious hair, it was fanned out about her head, laced with the hideous green algae.”
CHAPTER 64
