Authors: Beth Trissel
Her happiness knew no bounds
as
she
reached out lacy gloved f
ingers and looked up into
Cole’s
smiling
brown eyes.
All was as
it had been on her first arrival...
only
that had been
during
the day.
M
idnight blue
spread
about them now.
Cole’s
grasp engulfed her hand and he drew her up out of the boat and i
nto his arms
.
Her blue-sprigged
chemise swirled as he laughingly swung her around and around.
“Jules!
Have you any notion ho
w long I’ve been waiting
?”
She sensed the
smothering
weight of
the
years, but they
were flown
.
She w
as back where she belonged in Cole’s strong embrace.
“I’m h
ere
now
. It wasn’t easy to find my
way, but I’ve returned
, my love
.”
“Don’t ever leave me again, my dearest darling.
”
“No.”
She
buried her face in his neck,
breathing in the spice of his cologne and
inviting musk that was Cole
.
“Everything’s ready
,” he said
.
She gazed at
the
lawn and gardens stretching
way
up to the house.
Lanterns
glowed in the avenue of trees lining the
pebbled walk and fireflies
flickered among
the leaves like tiny candles.
Overhead
, a great
moon spilled a silver
y sheen over the magical scene.
It was Christmas, New Year’s
, and her birthday
all
rolled
in
to
one.
“Oh, Cole.
A fairyland.”
“As I said it would be for
Midsummer’s Eve.
Remember?
All is in readiness.
This
year’s ball shall be the most splendid
ever
because you are here
.”
He stood her on the manicured
lawn
.
H
and
in hand,
they strolled
between
the myriad of
dancing
lights.
Her blue slippers hardly seemed
to touch the ground.
The world
was airy and glowing,
within and
without.
Sh
e and Cole were together
as
they’
d been
before
.
No one
could take that away...
and
yet
,
it se
emed to her that someone had
,
with unspeakable cruelty
.
Bu
t
t
here wa
s no room in this heavenly balm
for pain
,
only joy.
“Mama and Aunt Penelope are
waiting fo
r us at the house
,” he said.
“They can wait awhile longer.”
“Yes.”
Time enough for those fine ladies later.
This was their time, her and
Cole’s.
Snow
white lilies shone from a circular flowerbed
set among the clipped boxwood.
Honeyed perfume
flowed over Julia
.
She breathed it all in.
Cole paused to pluck
a lily and slipped it in
to
her hair.
“A pure blossom for a faultless
lady
.”
She smiled.
“No woman is
perfect, Cole.
If you knew me better, you’d see my flaws.
”
“
I know you, Jules.
You’
re
an angel
.”
He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her fingertips,
his mouth warm through the lace
.
A thousand
shivers ran up her arm
.
A tiny p
earl button fell from her glove
to the shadowed ground.
Cole picked it up and tucked it into the pocket of hi
s jacket.
“A keepsake,” he said
, and
retook her hand.
They walked on and he
drew her
down to sit on the low brick wall
that wound through the garden
.
“Stay here awhile.”
“Anywhere,
with you,
” she murmured,
and tucked
her head against his chest.
His coat was satin next to
her skin, his chest
pulsing with life.
“We’ve been here before
.”
“Yes.”
He slipped his fin
gers through her hair.
How long they remained lost in moo
nlit oneness, Julia couldn’t have
s
aid. She savored every velvet
moment.
Then
Cole laid his cheek against hers, and she felt moist w
armth, like tears.
His voice was solemn in her ear.
“Dearest Jules, t
here are things you must know.”
Like darkness covering the moon, a
foreboding shadowed her joy.
“What
things?”
“All that has been
will be
.”
“
I don’t understand.
”
“All,” he repeated.
A bloodstain
ed blade slashed through Julia’s mind
and she saw Cole
lying on th
e floor of his chamber as she’
d
seen him
not long ago.
Was it only today, or a
two
centuries’ old memory?
Wrapping
her
arms around his dear warmth, she
clung to him fiercely.
Sobs tore at
her
throat
so she could barely speak.
“No
.
N
ot tha
t.
Forbid it Almighty God
.”
He cradled her tightly
, rocking her against him
.
“Shhhh
...
” he crooned.
“
The past cannot be undone
.”
“
It must.
Just this once, Cole.
Just this once.
”
“
No.”
His voice was
unbending.
“Then why am
I here in your precious arms?
Why did you say everything is ready?” she choked out.
He
tender
ly pressed his
lips over her tearstained
face
.
“
We’ve been given
a second chance
,
but it lies in the future.”
“What do you mean?
How will I know?”
He
stood
and pulled her to her feet
.
“
Watch and listen
well
.
We haven’t much time
to get it right
.
”
Terrible thought.
“And if we don’t
––
if we get it wrong?”
“
I have faith in you, Jules, and
in us.”
She sensed him fading int
o the shadows like mist, go
ing where she couldn’t follow.
“W
ait
.
H
ow will I find you?”
“I’
m
very near
, if you need me.”
“If?
Always and
forever.
Cole!”
“Seek and you
shall find
, my love
.
”
And then more faintly, “Watch for me by moonlight.”
Julia woke with a start, her face
wet from crying.
She lay
on the couch
covered with
the quilted
throw.
A small lamp shone on
the end table beside her, ba
thing her in soft white light.
She wiped at her eyes and sat up, t
oo shaken for words.
On the low table beside the pl
ate of brownies was
a spray of
pearl-
white lil
ies.
Their
perfume, like rich nectar
,
scented the room.
“Cole?” she whispered, t
hen, “Will?”
****
Will thrashed back and forth in his bed. “Julia, Julia, Julia,” he
muttered, thumping his pillow with his fist.
How could a girl he’d only just met
,
sear
him body and soul
?
The memory of her soft femininity enveloped
him like an intoxicating scent.
How he wished he could drin
k deeply from that sweet well.
H
e was parched.
Not only because it had been far too long since he’d had a woman, he’d never truly had the one he yearned for
.
Though, he couldn’t have sai
d who that ephemeral lady was.
He’d buried her too deeply in
his subconscious...until now...nor could he say just how far that subconscious went.
Only that desire for Julia welled
up in him like an overflowing spring.
He could
n’t
take this innocent girl
,
and
then pack her
off to
England.
Her
patriarch father would maim
, sue, and otherwise annihilate
him, and rightly so.
And if he wed her
––
go
od heavens
,
what was he thinking?
H
is grandmother woul
d leave
Foxleigh and her fortune to the Historical
Society as she’d thre
atened
on more than one occasion
.
Rather l
ike a high-handed duchess wantin
g everyone at her beck and call and pitching a fit if they balked
,
especially him.
He seemed particularly burdened with her strong bias, maybe because he was
all the
family she had left
.
And vice versa, which partly accounted for him tolerating her.
The old lady
had a list
of
spousal choices with her favorite
s
starred.
Julia wasn’t on it
,
and Will doubted her name would be added
to the roster
.
Grandmother Nora preferred female offspring from aristocratic Southern families with
lineages that reached
back into the earliest roots of Virginia.
‘Discreet affairs are tolerable, William, if you must indulge your base desi
res,’ he could hear her
say.
‘But marriage is an alignment of tw
o families, in your case, elite
families.
Romance doesn’t come into it.’
It wasn’t the fortune
Will
minded losin
g
so much
,
though it would go a
long way toward paying off law school
.
For some obs
tinate reason
stretching
beyond his grandmother,
he was bound to Foxleigh
.
The ties of the pa
st equally roped him to this hous
e and land that was so much more
.
It wasn’t just a place, but a reality that defined him.