A tear rolled down her cheek as she shook her head. “Earlier today I awoke from a terrible dream, Valentin. I couldn’t find you though I looked everywhere…and then I was home in Porthleven, walking along the same beach where you rescuedme. I was calling for you, crying out your name, but you weren’t there.You weren’t there!”
Estelle began to sob, her shoulders shaking, Valentin glancing at Mattie first to ensure she still stood inside the door before rising from his knees to pull Estelle into his arms. Then he sat with her upon the bed, cradling her as she buried her face against his chest and cried as if her heart was breaking.
“It’s all right, my love, it’s all right!” he sought to soothe her, stroking her hair. “A bad dream, nothing more, brought on by the laudanum. But you’re better now and won’t need the stuff any longer. I’m here with you, Estelle! Shh, I’m here…”
Valentin felt utter relief that her sobs had quieted, though she still clung to him as if she would never let him go.
Cursing again his cousin whosecruelty had brought Estelle to this wretched state, he kissed her damp cheek even as Mattie gasped and gestured to him wildly that someone was coming. He had no more than settled Estelle back upon the bed and covered her snugly when Adam ran into the room barefoot and wearing only trousers, Linette close behind him in her dressing gown.
“We heard Estelle weeping. Valentin, what’s happened?”
“She told me about a bad dream,” he said to Adam, who had rushed to the bed while Valentin stepped back to give him room. “The laudanum, I think. I came here as soon as I heard from Mattie that Estelle was awake. She was asking for me, but Mattie’s been here all along—”
“Yes, my lord, I’ve been standing right inside the door!” she blurted, looking helplessly from Linette to Adam.
“It’s all right,Mattie, no one’s blaming anyone for anything,” Linette murmured as if to calm them all. She glanced reassuringly at Valentin as she drew closer to the bed, too. “We’ll stay with her until she falls asleep again, you don’t have to worry—”
“No, Valentin, don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me!” Estelle pleaded in so hushed a voice that she could have whispered. Yet already she had closed her eyes,her dark lashes spiked with moisture, her slender fingers that had clutched the covers visibly relaxing.
Valentin sighed heavily, wanting so desperately to stay with her but knowing that he could not. As if reading his mind, Adam turned to him and said quietly, “No more laudanum.”
He nodded, wanting to reach down and touch her cheek one last time, but not wanting to wake her. All he could dowas pray that she felt better in the morning, her sedative-induced dream hopefully forgotten.
He doubted he would forget the heartbreaking anguish in her voice, though, as he left the room and made his way down the dimly lit hall.
Her words haunted him, strangely giving him a chill.
I was calling for you, crying out your name, but you weren’t there!
Why would she have dreamed such a terriblething when in another day’s time, he would announce to his people that he had chosen her for his bride?
Valentin turned the corner, so lost in thought that he nearly ran into a footman who appeared to be checking a flickering lamp hung from an iron sconce.
“Forgive me, Your Highness. A good night to you.”
Valentin murmured the same, though he found it odd that a footman would be handling atask usually accomplished by a chambermaid.
Now that he thought of it, he could have sworn he’d spied the same fellow—dark curly hair, stocky build—in the entrance hall when Mattie had come running to find him, but he’d been in such a mad rush that he couldn’t be sure.
One thing he was sure of was how weary he felt after what had just occurred with Estelle, his coronation day fast approaching.Praying that she would be there to share with him one of the most important moments of his life, he forgot about the footman and continued on his way to his private apartment.
Please, Lord, may she feel well enough to attend. Truly, the occasion would not be as memorable without her.
