Page 83 of The Journal of a Thousand Years
So Murray pistol-whipped him. “Don’t speak like that in front of the ladies.”
“Thank you,” Ivy said. She’d rallied now that the paper storm had ended. No doubt she was thinking of a way to get out of her predicament using legal arguments.
“I didn’t mean you, Miss Hobson.”
“Excuse me? What did I do to you?”
“You and your parents were rude to the staff, as well as to Mr. Bailey and Miss Ashe. Not to mention your involvement in her abduction.” His lips puckered in thought. “Maybe I should just shoot you to save the government paying for your prison accommodation.”
That silenced her.
I turned away from them and knelt beside Gabe, who was lying on his back. On his other side, Mrs. Bristow tied a tourniquet around his upper arm above the wound while Mrs. Ling pressed down on it.
“Gabe,” I said, my voice trembling. “Gabe, can you hear me?”
His eyes cracked open. “Sylvia. Well done.”
I smiled, not because of his praise but because he sounded stronger than I expected. He must be taxed to his physical limit, yet he wasn’t going to die. I stroked his hair back and kissed his brow. “And you,” I managed to say through my tight throat.
Bristow gave orders to carry Gabe inside. He took over holding the gun so that Dodson and Murray could help Gabe. I worried about leaving a frail man in charge of the prisoners, but he looked more than capable. The butler’s hands had never been steadier, his gaze never fiercer than now, with the gun pointed at Thurlow.
Thurlow and Ivy knelt side by side, their hands on their heads. Ivy sobbed, declaring her innocence and blaming Thurlow and her mother. Bristow ignored her. It was Thurlow who told her to shut up.
“Bloody women,” he snarled.
I wanted to follow Gabe inside, but I couldn’t leave the body of Melville lying there on the pavement. So, I knelt beside it and plucked off a piece of paper that had fallen against his face. I blinked at it, not quite believing what I saw. It was a blank letterhead withmyname on it. The paper held magic in it.Peterson magic, if I wasn’t mistaken. It would be strong, then. No wonder Ivy and Thurlow sported even more cuts now than they had before. Some looked quite deep. They’d leave scars.
Sally approached carrying a bedsheet. She gave Melville’s body a wide berth, and handed the sheet to me. “Mrs. Bristow says to cover him with this so you can come inside to be with Mr. Glass.”
I laid the sheet over Melville. Before I lowered it over his face, I touched his cheek. He looked peaceful and rather ageless, as if all his cares disappeared at the moment of death. It was the way I wanted to remember him. “Goodbye,” I whispered. Then I covered him completely and went inside.
I found Gabe in his bedroom, Mrs. Bristow fussing around him. She made him drink a glass of water then settle back into the pillows. His face was ashen again, but the smile he gave her was robust.
“Thank you, Mrs. Bristow. I’ll be all right now. Sylvia is here.”
She patted his hand and turned away. She looked close to tears, so I embraced her. Since I was still feeling quite fragile, I began to cry. Her arms tightened around me.
“There, now, Miss Ashe, he’ll be all right. He just needs to rest. The doctor is on his way to check him, but I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
I wiped my damp cheeks and sat on the bed. Before I knew it, Gabe drew me into an embrace. We clung to one another. Neither of us spoke. No words were necessary. The silence meant I could hear his breathing, more regular now, and the throb of his pulse. They were the best sounds I’d ever heard.
When I drew away, I was surprised to see Mrs. Bristow still in the room. “How did you know about the paper?” I asked her.
“When Mr. Hendry came to the door to ask my husband to fetch Mr. Glass, he also told him to gather as much paper as we could find and to throw it out of the windows when the time wasright, and you could use your magic on it. We all gathered up a stack and took a position by a window. Murray signaled for us to throw out our stacks when Miss Hobson screamed. It worked well, didn’t it?”
“Very well,” I said.
“Perfectly,” Gabe added.
Mrs. Bristow’s eyes crinkled at the corners with her cheeky smile. She turned to go, only to stop and address us again. “He did an admirable thing today, did Mr. Hendry. I was here all those years ago, when he attacked Mrs. Glass, as she was still called then, before she became Lady Rycroft. I wouldn’t say I knew him at all, but looking back, I remember a vacancy in his eyes. It was as if he wasn’t there, inside the shell of his body.” She gave me a flat smile. “He wasn’t a nice man then, but he wasn’t born mean. The world in general and Lord Coyle in particular made him like that. If he was born mean, he couldn’t have fathered such a wonderful and kind young woman.” She bobbed a brief curtsy, turned away quickly, and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.
I lay down beside Gabe and rested my head on his chest.
He removed the pins and combs from my hair and stroked his fingers through it. If it wasn’t for the languid motion of his fingers, I’d have thought he’d fallen asleep. His breathing finally steadied, and his body relaxed against mine.
“Sylvia,” he murmured.
“Hmmm?”
