Page 50 of If The Fates Allow
“Why would she go there?” Noah smoothed her hair from her face. “I know how poisonous manchineels are and how they can harm with just a touch. Your brother seems fascinated by them, and when I visited Beau several months ago, he kept hounding me over their venomous properties.”
“Grace had gone there to enter the water, thinking no one would follow.” Planted by her grandfather, the vile manchineels grew along the inlet point and served as a deterrent for the mill workers. Fairweathers never tolerated time wasted, even on hot days when an employee might want to take a dip in the cool water. “It was cold. I remember it was a cold day and close to Christmas, so the mill was closed. No one was around. No one was there to stop her from jumping into the water where the bayou meets the bay.”
“She was trying to swim away?”
Willa did fall then, right to her knees. The tears streaming down her cheeks were just as worthless now as they were back then. “Grace couldn’t swim. She was terrified of the water. We made it in time to see her disappear under the surface, and that was it. She was gone.”
Even in the dark, she could see Noah’s disbelief. “Your father? Your brother? None of you went in to save her?”
“We did.”
A pointless endeavor, but they had tried. For their Grace, they had tried. Her father, bloody from his murderous fight with Tommy, screamed as he swam. Cal had used all his strength, diving right along with Bonnie when they came to where Grace had disappeared.
“Every one of us tried to reach her.”
She didn’t have the heart to tell him how she had run to the section of shore where there were no manchineel trees, terrified of their sap touching her skin. She didn’t want him to know how she had only managed to make it waist-deep in the water before a breathing attackthreatened. The shame of not being able to help her sister would chase her until the end of her days.
“My mother tried to save Grace, too,” she whispered. “I told you she was different before, and she was. Before that day, she was light and happy whenever my father wasn’t around. I was never a favorite, but I think she felt at least some sort of motherly emotion toward Lucy and me back then.”
“Yet, she still seems to adore your brother?”
“Cal resembles Grace. Not only in looks but in personality. They’re close in age and were as thick as thieves once upon a time.” She took a deep inhale, the roar in her ears quieting. “When our mother looks at Lucy and me, all she sees are the disappointing daughters who remain, but Cal, he’s the obedient son, always ready to give our mother whatever she wants.”
Noah settled on the ground, placing his back against a tree. Pulling her into his lap, he wrapped them both in his long winter coat. “How has your family hidden this from everyone?”
She nearly laughed. He hadn’t been around her family long enough to understand their ability to manipulate and deceive with ease. The famous Fairweather charm could move mountains with but a look.
However, when it came to Grace, they had been so very lost in their grief that day. The whole world had come crumbling down on them, and no one had known what to do.
“Bonnie,” she replied. “Bonnie handled it.”
Her father had continued to dive until he retrieved his eldest daughter’s body, and once on shore, Cal had taken Grace from him, wrapping her in his coat as if he could keep her warm even in death. Her mother had wailed when they buried her firstborn in the graveyard. It had been an awful, keening cry of heartbreak, the likes of which Willa would never forget.
Willa rested her head on Noah’s chest, allowing his erratic heartbeat to punch against her cheek. “Bonnie returned to the house first and whispered to the staff that Grace and Tommy had slipped off throughthe bayou to run away, and we had tried to stop them. It explained why we were wet and distraught.”
“And what about Tommy?” His chin rubbed along the top of her head as if he were thinking this all through. “What happened to his body?”
“We buried him with Grace.”
Her father had fought against it, but when Margaret Fairweather’s mind snapped, he’d had no choice but to comply. To this day, Willa truly believed that if he hadn’t agreed, her mother would have had Cal kill her husband right there on the spot.
“When we went back to the house, none of the staff questioned us. They only clucked their tongues as if to say what a shame, but behind our backs, they whispered how happy they were for Grace.”
Noah’s lips pressed to her temple, and the dark void watching fled, having seen and heard enough. Willa nearly began crying again, hoping beyond hope that Grace was simply returning to her Tommy. That they had found each other somehow.
“They’ll whisper the same things about you,” Noah said softly. “They’ll say good for Willa. Running off to marry the man she loves. A man that’s going to give her the world.”
She lifted her head, meeting his steely gaze. “Are you?”
“I am.” Noah helped her stand, his outrage a mixture of fury and remorse. She understood the fury, but the remorse embedded itself in her brain. He was fighting the urge to sweep her away right then and was feeling guilty because he knew it just wasn’t possible yet. “But first, I have to get you out of that house.”
Chapter 16
He asked her to give him three days. “Don’t expect me to come for my usual visits, as I don’t want to raise suspicion.”
“Why would you raise suspicion if you visited me?”
Noah had smiled at the question. “Because you’re mine now, and every one of them will realize it the second they see us together.”
