Page 105 of The Rebellious Lady and the Phantom Lord
But he didn’t wait for an answer, shrugging. “I suppose it will keep for a few more minutes. I have to fetch Julianna in from the carriage.”
“Julianna!” Phaedra exclaimed. Still shaken by the terrible events of the past few hours, she had forgotten to inquire about James’s mission to find his sister. But before she could say anything more, James glowered at Gilly.
“Why the devil did you bring her here?”
“I could not be after leaving her alone, could I? What with you haring off and not sending me a blessed word.”
James silenced his complaint with an impatient gesture. “I suppose you’d best bring her in,”
As Gilly left the room, Phaedra turned to James. “So you did find her. How was ... I mean, how is Julianna?”
“You will see for yourself in a moment.”
The anguish in his voice told Phaedra all she needed to know. Dread clutched at her as she awaited Gilly’s return.
When he stepped back into the parlor, a timid wraith of a girl clung to his arm, her blond hair and wan face all but swallowed up by the hood of her cape.
Phaedra’s greeting died upon her lips. She blinked and stared as though seeing a ghost.
“Fae,” Gilly said solemnly, “may I present Miss Julianna Lethington.”
But Phaedra swept past her startled cousin to ease back the hood to peer closer at young woman. She regarded Phaedra with vacant blue eyes, an uncertain smile trembling upon her lips.
“Dear God,” Phaedra breathed. “Marie.”
Twenty-Three
The fire blazed in the hearth dispensing warmth through the far end of the music gallery. Candle shine spilled a soft glow upon the spinet and the couple who sat there. Gilly’s tenor voice crooned a ballad to the girl seated beside him, who shyly ducked her head. The girl Phaedra had known as Marie Antoniette.
Since Phaedra had last glimpsed the girl in Bedlam, Julianna’s appearance was altered. Her hair was neatly brushed, and she wore a pretty gown. But her frame was still too thin, and there yet lurked a lost, childlike quality to her eyes. Phaedra had the impression that Julianna still sometimes dreamed she was the Queen of France.
Phaedra tucked the ends of her shawl more securely about her. She and James lingered in the cool shadows at the opposite end of the gallery, watching the other couple. Phaedra sat in one of the massive armchairs while James paced before her. He directed a heavy frown toward the spinet. Phaedra had sensed no diminution of the tension in him since their return to the Heath yesterday. She was uncertain whether it stemmed from his feelings toward the old man upstairs, who clung tenaciouslyto life, although Sawyer no longer moved or spoke; or if it sprung from the sight of his sister, who didn’t even know him.
Julianna did remember at times that she had a brother James. But she could not connect that fiery young man with the tall stranger whose hard features seemed to frighten her.
Gilly stopped singing long enough to guide Julianna’s fingers over the keys. James pursed his lips, and then resumed what he had been saying to Phaedra before he had become distracted. “When Gilly and I arrived at the cottage, there was no sign of Julianna or Mrs. Link. We eventually found out the woman had died a year ago. Her rascally nephew had been pocketing the money your grandfather sent all that time. He told us some taradiddle about other relatives having taken Julianna north to Scotland.
“It was a long, wearisome search before Gilly and I discovered that my sister had actually been consigned to hell.”
James’s words were such an accurate description of Bedlam that Phaedra did not trust herself to reply. She paled as a flood of painful recollections coursed through her.
James must have noticed, for his grim features softened. He started to reach for her hand but stopped himself abruptly and resumed his pacing.
“Bedlam was a nightmare,” Phaedra said at last. “I hate to think of Jonathan in that dreadful place.”
“He won’t be sent there, I promise you. He will be looked after in his own home.”
Phaedra knew that James had been to see Jonathan after the doctor had left, but he dissuaded Phaedra from doing so.
“Is there any chance that Jonathan will ever recover?”
“No, I fear not. Neither his eyesight nor his sanity. When I left him, he was lost in his own world, talking as though you were there by his side.”
Phaedra’s lips trembled, her eyes filling with tears.
“You must not weep for him or blame yourself for Burnell’s mad fixation upon you,” James said brusquely. “He actually appeared strangely happy, lost in his delusion. Perhap more so than the rest of us, who must perforce remain in touch with reality. I sometimes feel that I would have been better off mad or dead than ever have lived to see?—”
He broke off, his eyes fixing broodingly upon his sister once more. “Julianne was never a clever girl, but always gentle and loving. Her genius was in her hands, her ability to breathe life into porcelain. Not only has she lost that talent, but all sense of herself as well. His voice thickened with anguish. “Christ! She doesn’t even know who I am.”
