To Walk in the Sun (Wiggons' School for Elegant Young Ladies - Book 1) (35 page)

“Well, that is it then,” Sophia
announced.

Eliza spared one more glance past Sophia into
the dark room.

“Nothing is in there. Do you want to look
yourself?” Sophia held the candelabra out to Eliza.

“No, I believe you.”

“Can we please return upstairs?”

“Yes, let’s do,” Rosemary chimed in and raced
for the stairway.

* * *

“How are you feeling?” Vincent asked from the
doorway three days later.

“I am fine and want out of this bed.”

He grinned and sauntered toward her. “That is
not going to happen until Dr. Conrad says you can move about.”

“But it is my arm, make that
shoulder
,
not my legs,” Tess knew she whined but didn’t care. She had been in
this bed for days and was about to go mad if she wasn’t allowed to
move about soon.

Vincent’s eyes at least held some
sympathy.

“Could I go down to the terrace at least?
Just for a short bit of time?”

“No. The temperature has gotten a good deal
colder and I will not risk you becoming ill on top of being
injured.”

“I will lose my mind if I must lay here for
one more minute with nothing to occupy it.”

“I could have the contents of my library
delivered up here,” he suggested as he took a seat.

Tess gestured to the books already on the bed
with her good arm. “Even reading does not hold my attention at the
moment. Which is very rare indeed.”

“Then perhaps some company.” He grinned at
her.

“Who?” She hoped he was offering, but feared
he would send in one of the teachers or girls. They visited often,
and she loved talking with them, but the subjects were thin at the
moment. It wasn’t as if they were in London where gossip could
entertain her. No, the entire school was within the household and
even the three troublemakers had been behaving. Things had gotten
remarkably dull in the last few days. Not that she wished for
anyone to be kidnapped again, or a tempest, or to be shot for that
matter, but it was rather dull after enduring such excitement.

“As the teachers are all doing their jobs and
the students are occupied with their lessons, I have only myself to
offer.” He spread out his arms and shrugged.

Tess didn’t bother to hide her smile. “Very
well, then. You shall have to entertain me.”

“What shall we converse on? The progress of
the building of the school, the students’ activities, town gossip?”
He laughed.

Tess studied him for a moment. Now was the
time to ask the question that plagued her. “Why can’t you go in the
sun? And, why do you have trouble reading?”

The smile fell from his lips. Vincent stood
and raked his fingers through his hair. “We are not sure.”

“We, as in you and Wesley, or doctors, or
who?”

“Everyone.” He shrugged.

“What happened?” Tess dearly hoped she was
not asking too personal of a question, but it bothered her ever
since she heard about the lord who did not leave the house in the
daylight and visited his wife’s grave at night.

Vincent began to pace. “I was injured from
artillery during the Battle of Bergen. Besides a wound to my right
thigh, I was knocked unconscious from a blast. When I awoke, I
found I experienced the worst headaches imaginable. I hoped they
would go away, and they did, for the most part. The only thing that
brings them on is when I try to read, or go into the bright
sun.”

“Yet you carried me through the cemetery with
the sun beating down on you?”

He grimaced at the reminder. “Did they also
tell you how I cast up my accounts afterwards?”

A small smile pulled at her lips. “Yes, they
did.”

“With the pain comes sickness and there is
nothing anyone can do.”

“That is why you drank so much brandy when we
arrived,” she confirmed.

“It helps dull the pain and helps me
sleep.”

“What of laudanum?”

His jaw tightened at the suggestion and Tess
could not understand why. The man forced the vile stuff on her for
three days following her injury.

Vincent took a deep breath and settled into
the chair across from her. Tess listened as he told of the night of
his return and finding Percer with his wife and her death. She
swiped away the tears when he explained how the town came to view
him when he did not attend her funeral.

“You must have loved her so very much.” It
tore at her heart to see him in such pain. It also made her face
the fact that Vincent had found his one, true love and it had been
taken from him. He would never love like that again.

He lifted his face and looked her deep in the
eyes. “Yes, I did.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“As am I.”

She couldn’t bear the pain on his face, or
the ache in her heart. A man who loved like that, loved once in a
lifetime. Even had she agreed to be his wife on one of those
occasions he had asked, she now knew he would never love her. It
was a marriage of duty, protection, and she was glad she had
declined the offer. Living without him was surely easier than being
his wife, and loving him the way she did, when he did not return
the same emotion. “You should return to your work. I have kept you
away too long.”

“I can’t work right now.”

“Why?”

“I am without a secretary, and my library is
presently occupied.”

“Claudia, Natalie?”

“Don’t have time for me,” he laughed.

“Perhaps you should advertise. I am certain
someone who is qualified can be found,” Tess encouraged.

“I don’t want anyone else. I want you.”

Tess turned away. She would love nothing more
than to be his assistant, but it would only cause heartache in the
future. “I don’t think I will have time either, once I am
recovered.”

“Tess?” He picked up her hand and kissed her
knuckles. “I need you.”

She turned to look at him. “No, you don’t.”
She attempted a smile. “Anyone can do what I did.” She forced a
yawn. “I think I need a nap. You don’t mind do you?”

Confusion marred his brow. “No. I don’t. Rest
easy.” He bent down and kissed her brow.

“Lord Atwood,” she called when he reached the
door.

He turned to look at her.

“I am very sorry for your loss.”

He opened his mouth as if to say something,
but then closed it. He opened the door and stepped out, then turned
back to her. “Ring if you need anything.”

Once the door closed, Tess let her tears
fall. Perhaps she needed to reconsider traveling. How long could
she remain here, or at the school, with him so near, knowing she
could never have him? No, she could have him, just not his love.
Without that, she would rather have nothing.

--again did she present herself to his ardent
fancy in all the glow

of her bridal charms, and he began to draw a
parallel

between the past and the present;

Wake Not the Dead

Johann Ludwig Tieck

Chapter 29

“He still could have brought Lady Atwood back
from the dead. Just because she wasn’t in the cellar doesn’t mean
she doesn’t exist,” Eliza broached the subject once again.

“Enough!” Sophia threw her arms up and
stomped across the gazebo before she flopped onto a cushioned seat.
“Lady Atwood is deceased and will remain that way. Her grave wasn’t
even disturbed.
Wake Not the Dead
is a
fictional
novel. There is no such thing as vampires.”

Eliza stared at Sophia for a good long minute
as if she wished to argue the possibility. Finally she sighed and
let her hands fall to her lap.

“And Miss Crawford is not a murderess
either,” Rosemary chimed in.

“Thank goodness,” Eliza sighed. “Though it is
rather tragic how she killed her uncle. I wouldn’t want to live
with the knowledge of having taken another’s life.”

“Nor will we ever mention it to her,” Sophia
insisted. “She was willing to kill Percer to save me and I will be
forever grateful.”

The girls sat in silence for a few more
moments. Wind blew the last remaining leaves from the now naked
trees, and a deep blue sky peeked through the limbs. Sophia pulled
her cloak tight. It would soon be too cold to be outside for any
length of time.

“There is still one more mystery to solve,”
Eliza interrupted the silence.

Both Sophia and Eliza looked at her with
expectation.

“The map! All we need are the remaining
pieces and we can put it together to find out where the treasure
has been hidden.”

Rosemary’s eyes lit with excitement.

“I don’t think that is a good idea,” Sophia
cautioned. “Too many lives have been lost due to that map.”

Eliza dismissed her with a wave of her hand.
“It isn’t like we are going to murder someone for it. I’m just
curious.”

“As am I,” Rosemary agreed.

“Fine, I will speak to my father. Perhaps he
knows where the rest of the pieces are.”

* * *

Vincent tapped on her door. When she didn’t
answer he tapped a second and third time. He knew she was in there
because she still did not have the strength to move about. He
pushed the door open and looked toward the bed. Tess lay sound
asleep. For a moment he stood in the doorway simply watching her.
He should leave her in peace, but his feet took him to the side of
the bed.

Midnight hair fanned out on the pillow,
velvet lashes brushed her cheeks, now with a rosy tint. Her health
was returning, but he placed the back of his hand against her face
to assure himself the pink hue was not from a fever. No, her skin
was warm, but not overly so.

Instead of leaving her, as he should, Vincent
settled into the chair beside the bed. He could watch her for
hours. Just the sight of her made his heart ache. He could not
remember feeling such strong emotion for another person before.
There was no doubt in his mind that he had loved Veronica, but they
were so young back then. Though it had been just two years, with
all that had happened, it might as well be twenty. He was a
different man now. Had Veronica not died, he was sure they would
have still been happy, but she was gone and he needed to move
forward. She would have wanted him to.

Until Tess came into his life he had never
realized that he’d stopped living the day Veronica died. Oh, he had
gone about doing what was necessary for the estate and employees,
but had not thought much of the future. How could he? The pain that
plagued him was constant and it was all he could do to get through
correspondence, let alone once look for a new wife.

Then there was revenge. Nobody knew which
bullet finally took Percer’s life and it could have been a
combination of all three guns. Regardless, he had the satisfaction
of avenging Veronica. The book to his past was now closed and for
the first time, he looked toward the future. He wanted a future. He
wanted a life with Tess.

He didn’t even mind his house being overrun
with students and teachers. There was life here once more. But they
would be gone in the spring. Would Tess go with them? No, he
wouldn’t allow it. He needed her. He wanted her. He loved her. He
just needed to make her understand that her place was with him.

* * *

Tess yawned and tried to stretch, but the
pull in her shoulder stopped all physical movement. She had
forgotten. The discomfort had all but disappeared, except when she
attempted any movement. She opened her eyes to look around the room
and was brought up short by the sight of Vincent in the chair. Was
something wrong? “Why are you here?”

“I came to check on you.”

With her good arm she pushed herself to a
sitting position. Vincent moved to stack the pillows behind her
head and back once more. “Surely there is something that requires
your attention.” It was rather disconcerting to wake and find him
staring at her, each and every time she awoke. Had she drooled in
her sleep, snored, talked? Her face heated with all of the possible
ways she could have embarrassed herself.

“I find it difficult to be away from you for
any length of time.”

Tess laughed and looked away. His smile was
warm, kind, his eyes held love.
No, that is silly
.

The warmth of his hand surrounded hers and
she glanced back to him. What was he about?

“I thought my own heart would stop when you
collapsed.”

“As you can see, I am on the mend,” she
assured him.

“Then, you lay here for two days, not waking.
I thought I would lose my mind.”

“Have you been spending time with Eliza?” She
grinned. “It isn’t like you to exaggerate.” And it made her very
uncomfortable. It was hard enough to be in love with him, she
didn’t need encouragement when his former wife would always hold
his heart.

He chuckled. “I suppose I did sound a bit
dramatic. But you have no idea what it was like to be the one
waiting for you to awaken.” He squeezed her hand again.

“As I said, I am fine now and you can cease
worrying.”

“That isn’t all.” He leaned forward. “I
learned something else.”

“What?” she asked, almost afraid of the
answer.

“It is no secret that I care for you, offered
you marriage, desire you.”

Her heart picked up its pace. Where was this
conversation going? “You only felt the need to protect me. I am no
longer in danger.”

“I also fell in love with you.”

Her heart ceased, as did her breath. No, he
didn’t mean it.

“Say something.” His brow creased with
concern.

“I think you are confusing the excitement of
the past week with love. It is not possible that you could be in
love with me.”

A smiled pulled at his lips. “Why not?”

Tess swallowed and looked away. “You loved
your wife too deeply to fall in love with me.” There, she had said
it. As soon as he acknowledged that he would always love her more,
then she would make a break.