Page 68 of Control's Undoing

The world thought Oscar loved Florence, but Florence chose Bram.The truth was that the three were married, but that relationship couldn’t be made public.Instead, Florence and Bram were legally married.

Xavier knew the real story of Wilde—including who he was trinity married to.That was one of the privileges of being a member of the same secret society that had caused Wilde such pain.

He’d always assumed that Wilde was angry with Florence and Bram for forcing him to play the bachelor.That, combined with Wilde’s own restless nature and need to love and be loved, had led to him leaving them and spending the rest of his life thumbing his nose at the Masters’ Admiralty.

But what if it was more than anger or spite?

Looking at the ghostly images of Annie and Colum, Xavier imagined them fading away, until he had nothing left of them but memories.

What if Wilde had truly loved his trinity, and no matter how many other people he found to love, Florence’s and Bram’s ghosts haunted him.

Xavier spun from the window, heading for his tablet.

“Xavier?”Annie asked.

He flapped a hand at her, flipping through the pictures of the pages from the Dublin piece of the manuscript.The real manuscript was carefully in its case at Colum’s elbow, but he wanted to move fast and wouldn’t risk damaging pages in his haste.

It took him ten minutes to confirm he was remembering it right, and then he raced over to snatch up Annie’s tablet, flipping through the images she’d taken of the New York pages.

Satisfaction slid through him, and he felt an almost audible click of pieces snapping together as he put down the tablet.

Annie and Colum were looking at him, both quiet and expectant.

“Florence and Bram,” Xavier said.

“His trinity,” Colum responded immediately.

“Wilde was bisexual.Xavier perched on the arm of the couch and facing them where they sat at the table.“Marriage to a man and a woman would have been perfect.”

“So why didn’t he stay?”Annie asked slowly, though the way she stared into middle distance told him she wasn’t really asking him, so much as she was posing the question to all of them.

“The story, at least within the Masters’ Admiralty, is that Wilde was upset when Bram and Florence decided to get legally married and live together as spouses, meaning, he’d have to be the bachelor and not live with them,” Colum added.

“You don’t agree,” Xavier said, hearing the doubt in Colum’s words.

“Do you know how close together they lived?”Colum said.“Stoker was born in Clontarf, but he lived on Kildare Street.That’s as close to Wilde’s childhood home as the archive was to Annie’s hotel.”

“That’s a ten-minute walk, fifteen if you’re strolling,” Annie added.

“So why didn’t he stay?”Colum said, repeating Annie’s question.“He could have lived as a bachelor and spent every day with his husband and wife.He could have bought a house next door and been a confirmed bachelor but had the benefit of romantic and sexual relationships with his secret spouses.No one would have questioned him spending time with them.”

“No,” Xavier agreed.“Especially if Bram and Florence started hosting salons.Wilde’s parents’ salons were famous.Known as cultural and scientific hubs where people came and went from their home regularly.”

“He and Stoker were friends at university,” Colum said.“Were recruited into the society together.And he and Florence had known each other since they were children.It wouldn’t have been hard to explain the friendship.”

“Still, if it were me, I’d feel like the odd man out,” Annie said.“That would hurt.I mean, I know that’s what trinities have done historically until very recently, when nontraditional relationships have become less scandalous.”

“Hurt enough that you’d run off and rarely, if ever, return to the city where you were born?Hurt enough to marry someone else?”Xavier asked, brows raised.

“No, that seems…extreme.”Annie was frowning.“He would have known when he joined there was a possibility that, in the eyes of the world, he would never marry.”

“But don’t you see?We’re trying to apply logic to a situation that is rooted in the heart.The soul.”Xavier splayed a hand over his own chest.

There was silence before Colum met his gaze.“They broke his heart.”

Xavier nodded slowly.“I think Florence did or said something that broke Oscar’s heart, and the broken heart is what drove him away.”

“Florence and Bram?”

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