Page 83 of Sir Hugo Seeks a Wife
“Dr.Marsh, a word outside,” Stannard said from behind Hugo.If Hugo had had an ounce of attention for anything other than Athene, he’d appreciate the earl’s tact.As it was, he barely noticed the two men leaving the room.
“Athene, Athene, my beloved, come back to me.”He lifted that alarmingly relaxed hand to his lips and pressed a fervent kiss to her fingers.“Don’t go.I beg of you.”
Hot tears pricked his eyes.She couldn’t leave him.He wouldn’t let her.It had taken him his whole life to find her.He couldn’t lose her now.
“Athene, don’t die.I can’t go on without you.”His voice cracked with despair.Because he very much feared that she couldn’t hear him, that he talked to himself.That she’d never hear him again.Which didn’t stop him from trying.“Please, Athene, please.”
Again, she didn’t respond.This stillness was so alien to the vivid woman he adored.Tears trickled down his cheeks and onto the pale hand he clutched.He pressed her hand to his heart, a heart that beat for her alone.
“Come back to me, my darling.Come back.”Then words he’d nearly spoken aloud so many times.Only damned cowardice had stopped him confessing his feelings before this.Sick shame crushed him.He should have told her.He should have put aside his pride and his fear and his useless attempts to strategize her surrender.If a man loved a woman, he should bloody well say so.“I love you, Athene.”
Despite his resolution, his voice wavered.But he’d held the words back for so long, it was a relief to say them at last.He swallowed to ease a throat tight with tears.
“I loved you from the first time I saw you, all starch and defenses and longing eyes.I loved you when you tried to fight how much you wanted me.I loved you when you came to my bed and turned my life to bliss.I love you now.”Having breached the dam of confessing his feelings, he couldn’t stop the flow of words.“I love you.I love you.I love you.”
He didn’t know how long he sat by her bedside, stroking her hand and begging her to speak to him.Dr.Marsh came in a couple of times, and Hugo was vaguely aware of Stannard placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.Yet what comfort could he find if Athene left him?
As hours passed, the wellspring of hope oozed away to nothing.His desperate, heartbroken pleas were in vain.Athene was dying.There was nothing that he could do about it.
“Athene, I love you.”Hugo wept as he pressed her hand to his lips again.“Come back to me, lass.”
Chapter 22
I sought you through the night.
You offered me my only light.
Once lost, but at last found,
Our souls are now forever bound.
Someone called Athene’s name.Through the thick darkness blanketing her mind, she knew that.She knew the voice, too, although it was hoarse and broken as she’d never heard it before.
She tried to answer, but suffocating silence held her trapped.Trying to move only reminded her of pain.Every bit of her hurt.Surely an ax must have split her skull.
But that voice didn’t stop.It continued in an endless litany.Speaking of hope and the future.And love.
Love?Yes, she loved the man who spoke.
Shards of pain slashed at her, as the temptation rose to return to the darkness.
But even while she sank toward oblivion, the voice wouldn’t let her go.Thelovewouldn’t let her go.
It hurt to be alive.It hurt so much.She wanted to float away so nothing hurt anymore.
But the love reached out with hands as strong as iron.It caught her tight and wouldn’t let her slip away.
She could have ripped free.But an urge stirred beneath her wish to give up.It told her that she wanted to come back.For so long, she’d drifted without will.Now something invincible insisted that it was time to return to the world.
To the love.
Athene sucked in a deep breath, then wished to glory that she hadn’t.A spear pierced her chest.When she tried to speak, no sound emerged.
“I love you, Athene.I love you.”
She was aware enough now to identify the voice.Hugo… Hugo.
Hugo, her lover.Hugo who sounded as if his heart was broken.
