Page 98 of By the Sword
Nell sighed. ‘That’s not what I meant. What of Kate? You do love her, don’t you?’
He looked away and nodded. He loved her as he had loved no woman before. A different, deeper, more abiding love than the youthful passion that he had for Mary.
‘Will you take her with you?’ Nell asked.
He swung his gaze back to his sister, unable to disguise his surprise at her suggestion. In the wild turmoil of the past months, the thought had not occurred to him. A life in exile with Kate by his side? Was that possible?
He remembered the grim reality of an exile’s life, the hand-to-mouth existence of bad food and worse beds, and shook his head.
‘Dearly as I would like to, Nell, what can I offer her? There is Tom to consider. We would hate each other within weeks.’
Nell cocked her head to one side and bit her lip. ‘Well, that is her decision, but I think you owe it to her to make that choice.’ She sighed. ‘Now, I should go to her. Will you come with me?’
Jonathan shook his head. The sight of Kate’s bruised face reminded him that he had failed her. Once more his hubris had caused hurt to someone he loved. He didn’t know how he could ever face her again.
‘If you want me, I will be in the library,’ he said.
At the door, Nell cast him one last look before catching her skirts in her hand and leaving the room.
***
Somewhere in the house, someone was singing. Kate lay quite still, straining her ears to catch the distant song as Nell bustled around the room. She wondered how anyone in the world could find such joy in life. It seemed all happiness she had ever known or ever dreamed of had been extinguished in the headlong events of the past few weeks.
Even turning her head hurt.
‘Nell, can you bring me a mirror?’
Nell stopped folding clothes and straightened. ‘Are you sure? I don’t think–‘
‘A mirror… please.’
Nell sat on the bed and held up the mirror and Kate grimaced. The bruised and swollen face that looked back at her seemed almost unrecognisable. She touched the cut on her lip and tears started in her eyes as she remembered how close Prescott had come to killing her.
A gulping sob escaped and Nell laid the mirror down and took Kate’s hand in hers.
‘Ellen says there is no lasting damage,’ Nell said, mistaking Kate’s distress for concern over the physical scars.
Kate shook her head. A mistake. She winced.
‘No,’ she said. ‘Not that. I can’t see how it will ever be right again.’
‘Tell me what happened in the barn, Kate?’
Kate closed her eyes, trying to make sense of the headlong events of the previous night but it only came to her in snatches. The storm broke and the pent-up emotions of the past year poured from her. She howled her fear and her despair into Nell’s embrace, grateful for the comfort that only another woman could give her.
When she had no more tears to shed, Nell laid her down, wiping her ravaged face with a cold cloth.
In a voice thick with her tears, she asked the one question she didn’t know the answer to. ‘Prescott…Is he dead?’
Nell nodded. ‘Yes.’
‘And Jonathan?’
Nell’s lips tightened. ‘In the library. He’s lost in a black mood. Giles says they come on sometimes. I’ve tried to talk to him. He blames himself for what happened to you, rightly so in my opinion.’
Kate turned her head to look out of the window. ‘I don’t blame him, Nell.’
‘I’m not sure I agree with you. He has to face you and above all, he owes you a proper explanation and an apology.’ Nell smiled and smoothed the hair away from Kate’s forehead. ‘He will come soon, I am sure of it.’
