Page 55 of The Dravenhearst Brides
Merrick’s arms were taut and solid around her, so large they made her feel small. He kicked open the paddock gate and strode into the middle of the empty pasture. Finally, he came to a stop and laid her down in a patch of thick green grass. He grunted softly as he released her, his breath warm on the crown of her head.
Margot dug her fingers into the grass. She ripped out a handful and held it to her nose, breathing deep. In the absence of his overwhelming warmthand scent, she needed to be grounded by something tactile to banish the smell of horse from her mind.
Merrick watched her, wary.
She took a second sniff of grass, releasing an anxious noise, halfway between a sob and a laugh.
He sat beside her and rumpled his hair. His gaze darted sidelong to her, then away. To her, away. He was nervous, possibly afraid of her. Afraid of what she’d just done, showed him. Shame rushed in.
A tendency toward hysteria,the voices of a half dozen physicians burned her ears.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. She’d never wanted him to see it, how damaged she was.
“What the hell happened back there?” His words were demanding, but his manner wasn’t. His eyes were wide, overflowing with concern. “Margot, one minute you were there with me, and the next, you weren’t. And then you were…you were fighting me like a wild barn cat.”
“I’m sorry,” she repeated, feeling as small as an eight-year-old child. Now that she was out in the night air, exposed and illuminated by the soft light of the rising moon, she felt horrifically embarrassed.
“I’m waiting for an explanation,” he said. Again, harsh words. But when she risked a glance at him, she saw tremendous softness in his eyes. She’d scared him. He wasworried.
It was his overwhelming concern, concern in a place where she expected judgment, that unburdened her. She hadn’t spoken of Elijah to anyone in years, hadespeciallynever spoken of what happened. Not beyond the initial recounting to her parents.
“I told you I didn’t ride horses,” she murmured, casting her eyes downward. “That was a lie. I used to ride all the time, and I was quite good. But I don’t anymore. I don’t…I can’t be around horses. Not after what happened to my brother.”
“Elijah?”
Margot’s mouth went dry.How did he know?
“I’ve heard you say his name,” Merrick said. “You said it just now in the stables. And I…I saw his gravestone at Greenbrier. His birthday is the same as yours.” He didn’t say what else he must have seen, Eli’s death date.
“Yes, we are—were—twins.”
He waited, digging his own fingers into the grass now. Fisting tightly.
“When we were fourteen, we went out riding together. We rode almost every day. We…” She swallowed. “He challenged me to a race.”
His voice came to her, clear as day.“Margot, catch me!”
She was transported. Her lips formed the words, she heard them echoing in the night, as the scene played out before her eyes.
Elijah, streaking ahead on Cerberus, his dapple gray mount. His laugh carried by the wind to her ears. She hunched low over her mare, tucking in her knees and urging her to give chase. The sun caught her eyes, momentarily blinding her.
That was when it happened.
Margot saw a flicker in the grass. Cerberus did too. It was a copperhead, one that raised its head and hissed. Elijah’s stallion jolted to a stop. Rearing, bucking. Her brother was thrown into the air. A scream rent apart the morning. To this day, she knew not whether the scream was Elijah’s or hers. That was how it had always been between them—Margot had never quite known where she ended and her brother began. They were two halves of a whole. Two bodies, one soul.
Until suddenly, they weren’t.
Margot slid off her mount as her brother tumbled to the ground, landing beside Cerberus’s hooves. She sensed what was going to happen. She darted forward, knowing only she could prevent it, but she wasn’t fast enough. Cerberus’s hooves stomped down directly on the middle ofElijah’s spine.
She would hear the resoundingcrackin her nightmares for years to come.
Margot continued to move, eyes only on her brother. Hertwin. She didn’t see Cerberus’s rear leg kick, but she felt it when it slammed into her temple. She went down hard.
Head spinning.
Eyes blurring.
Heart breaking.
