Page 80 of The Heart of an Earl

Hair that had lost its streaks of sun.

“Tell me this isn’t a dream. Tell me you did not die, Des.” Her voice was frantic in his chest.

“No. I’m here. Here. Alive.” His hand clasped the back of her head—clasped it to him, not willing to let her step one foot away from him ever again.

A fragment. A moment of lost bliss, given back to him.

Until her hands wedged up between them, pushing on him. “Where the hell have you been? Nothing—nothing could stop you from coming for me—that’s what you said. I was sure you were dead—it was the only reason.”

Both of his hands flew up at his sides. “I thought you were dead, Jules. Your father—he showed me your grave. Your damned grave.”

Her head snapped back and she looked up at him. “He did what?”

“Told me you were dead—pneumonia. It was a month after he’d had me shot, but I came back for you. And that was what he offered me. A grave. He dragged me to your grave.”

“You were shot?”

He nodded.

A scream, ragged, ripped up her throat, piercing into the night air. “That was the grave—the grave my mother had put up for me after I was taken onto theRed Dragon. She thought I died—could not think of me in any other way. But she never let him put a date upon it—there was always the slightest hope that she held to.”

“Jules.” He stared at her, at the horror in her face, wanting nothing more than to take all of the pain of the last five years from her eyes. “There was nothing that was going to stop me from coming for you.” His hand went to the side of her face. “He had me shot—I nearly died, but once the infection finally cleared I came back for you. But by then you were dead—or so he claimed.”

“No—no, no, no.” The words whispered raw from her throat.

Laughter. Laughter from outside the alcove.

Laughter close by. Laughter floating into the air from beyond the evergreen walls surrounding them. Laughter stealing the moment away from him.

Laughter he recognized—bells of gaiety that rang true and strong. Not that the laughter had ever been in the room with him, but he’d heard it, again and again, floating throughout the halls of Wolfbridge Castle.

Vicky. What in the hell was she doing out in the gardens?

Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

Torture to peel his arms from her, Des released Jules and stepped to the opening of the alcove. He craned his neck to see down the row of yews to the main part of the gardens.

Her white skirts flashing in the moonlight, Vicky was walking along the border next to the maze, moving to the opening where she would get lost in the confines of the labyrinth. Her arm was threaded securely in the fold of Lord Flouten’s elbow.

Damn Wolfbridge. He was going to take care of the fop and now the man thought to ruin his daughter under their very noses.

Des flew out of the alcove and intercepted Vicky and Lord Flouten three steps before the entrance to the maze.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Des snatched the man’s arm and jerked him away from Vicky.

Lord Flouten spun to him, “Who do you—”

Des swung, punching the peacock straight across the jaw. Lord Flouten stumbled sideways five steps, holding his face, squealing in pain.

Des turned to Vicky. “Come with me right now before you make an utter fool of yourself and me.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the steps leading to the ballroom.

She fought him, trying to squirm from his grasp, but his hold was too tight. She’d not get herself ruined. Not tonight.

He dragged her up the marble steps to the ballroom and just before the French doors she twisted to him, venom-filled words flying in a low hiss from her mouth. “You can’t just abandon me for eighteen years and think you have any right—any right at all to my life. You don’t.”

“Vicky.”

She yanked her arm free from him and ran to the open doors. Just before she stepped inside, she spun back to look at him, her face full of spite. “Now I have two fathers that think they know what’s best for me when neither of you do. You know nothing—nothing. And I don’t want you in my life. Go back—go back to the sea or whatever hovel you were hiding in.” She turned and stormed away from him, stomping into the ballroom.

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