Chapter 18 #2
“He got away,” he reminded her. “The boy is tough.”
“Only because a copper came,” she said darkly. “He managed to crawl back to that hidey hole and then everything got worse.” She worried at her lip. “I can’t do anything for him except hold his hand. I can’t make him better. I wish I could.”
“With blood?” Kendrick said neutrally.
“What?” Genevieve recoiled. “No! He’s a child; I would never turn anyone, but especially not a child!”
“Good,” Kendrick said. “I wouldn’t have let you.”
She could practically feel steam boiling out of her ears. “Then why did you suggest it?” she hissed in a whisper.
“I didn’t mean turning him. When an illness is not life-threatening, vampire blood can help humans recover. But it isn’t wise. It is…not fast-acting. There is always a risk. If you had wanted to attempt to heal him, I would have advised against it.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “I never knew that.” Genevieve glanced over her shoulder at Fletcher. “They never told us that.”
“Time was, kings or lords wanted one of us among them so they could cheat fate, but wyrd always finds a way in the end.”
“Really? Humans have known about—vampires?”
Kendrick nodded, his face dark. “Men have always made use of monsters. I am not surprised the boy knew of us as night-stalkers. Rupert was incautious in his rule.” Kendrick nudged her back towards the bed.
“Don’t be afraid. It isn’t you he’s wary of.
You proved yourself to him before you knew you had to. ”
Genevieve turned back to Fletcher and helped Joseph with a plaster that he spread on his chest. Joseph instructed him to let them know if it burned or if he felt different and then went downstairs to prepare more brews.
“Smells rank,” the boy muttered.
“That’s the mustard. It will help you breathe.”
“Don’t go, miss,” Fletcher said, his eyes fluttering shut.
Genevieve took his hand, still too hot. “I’m right here, Fletcher. You rest. I won’t go anywhere. You’re safe.”
The puppy, washed, snuffled from beside the boy. “We shall have to find something for the both of you,” she murmured.
“I bought food,” Kendrick said, coming back in the room with a cot under his arm. She hadn’t even heard him leave. “Let him sleep, and when he wakes again, we’ll feed him.”
“He’s drunk water,” Genevieve said distractedly. “What are you doing?”
“Sunrise is soon.”
“Oh—but what shall we do? I can’t leave him alone.”
“The cot is for you, Genevieve,” Kendrick said. “I’ll stay up with the boy.”
She stared at him in astonishment. “You can stay awake in daylight?”
“Enough to get him what he needs. Centuries of practice.”
Genevieve murmured, “Rupert would not have allowed this. I don’t know if anyone would’ve.”
“He is important to you,” Kendrick said simply, stacking the bedding on the cot. “So he is important to me.”
Genevieve swallowed, a deep warmth spreading through her. She had not been warm in so long. “You know, if we do marry, there will be resistance. Change of any sort does not go over well with our kind.”
“They really don’t get a say,” Kendrick said mildly.
“But if you are worried, we can give them a fait accompli. They can be as unhappy as they like, but it will have no bearing on whatever lies between us.” He paused and then added, “If that is your only impediment, I can arrange it all very quickly.”
“Given it some thought, have you?” she said dryly.
“I confess I have.” He smiled.
Genevieve twisted her free hand in her skirt. It’s not my only impediment, but if I am considering this, I had best lay out my stipulations, as Elspeth advised. “I have conditions,” she said, straightening her shoulders.
His eyes gleamed. “Lay them out.”
“If we are to be married, it must be a true marriage. With vows, before God. I know it cannot be in a church—”
“Why can’t it be in a church?” he asked, puzzled.
She stared back at him, equally puzzled. “We can’t go in churches.”
“Says who?”
Her mouth dropped open. “I…”
Bacchus, she realized. Bacchus had put that command on her, as well as a myriad of small, onerous dos and don’ts over the years. And she was free of all of them.
Kendrick’s speculative gaze moved from her to the covered windows at the end of the room.
“I’ve never encountered an impediment. Some may not be able to enter churches, but they’re hindered by their own souls, I think.
I have found nothing to fear in a church.
If you wish to be married in one, we can accomplish that.
You can even be written in the registry. ”
She blurted out, “Will that be legal?”
Kendrick looked back at her steadily.
“Oh. Silly question.” She ducked her head. “I would like it to be in a church,” she admitted slowly, “but then Elspeth could not attend. Her command is still in effect. Sparrow’s might be as well.” And there is some part of me that is still afraid, she admitted to herself.
A muscle in Kendrick’s jaw ticked, but he nodded.
“What about banns, or a license? There might be questions without them…”
“We will not need the banns read. The priest will see it my way.” He smiled. “What else?”
“Well, I’m Church of England, but we can discuss more particulars later.” She swallowed. “As a real marriage, I expect fidelity.”
“Genevieve, you have only known me a short time, and you have no reason to believe my word holds. But the only thing we emerge from the grave with intact is our word of honor. Too many vampires decide that power is a sufficient replacement. But that is not so. If I make a vow or swear an oath, I keep it. And is not marriage a vow?”
“It is—but you wouldn’t know it based on some of the behavior I’ve witnessed from human and vampire alike.” She fisted her hands in her skirts.
Kendrick’s keen eyes glinted. “You worry that I will find forever too long a time when not hemmed in by ‘till death do us part’?”
“Vampires get bored. I’ve always thought that the main reason for the general aversion to marriage.”
He smiled and ran a finger down the curve of her cheek. “Fools, all of them. Jenny, how could I ever grow bored with you?”
Genevieve stammered, “T-That’s another thing. I do not… I am not sure…” She set Fletcher’s hand down and crossed to the window. She couldn’t say this.
She wiped her hands on her skirts. She had to say it.
She felt Kendrick follow her, though he didn’t make noise on the floorboards missing their rugs. “What?”
“I know you wanted a real marriage, and—truly, I do not think that I would want a sham marriage, but—I don’t do well with touch,” she forced out. “Because of what my body remembers and my mind does not.” Her throat closed, her body already flinching.
Gently, Kendrick said, “Genevieve, I noticed.”
She clenched her hands so tightly that a seam in her glove burst. “It’s foolish.”
Kendrick set his hand over hers, a slow, quiet touch. “No, it isn’t. Do you know if it’s more to do with blood drinking, or physical intimacy?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Likely…the latter.”
“As long as we do one or the other, that’s needed to convince the general populace. Don’t worry about anything else.”
“But you said it would have to be real,” she pushed on doggedly. “That people would be able to tell. I can’t promise I could…be a wife in the full sense of the word.”
“Genevieve, we’re vampires. We have nothing but time. The blood exchange will be enough to start. Everything else can come later, in the fulfillment of its own time. As long as I am not what holds you back. I don’t want you to fear me.”
“I don’t,” she said, surprised.
“But you don’t trust me. Yet.”
“But I want to,” she whispered as a wave of exhaustion swept over. The sun. It was rising.
“I would make you promises, Genevieve,” Kendrick said. “And pledge to stay true to you until the world’s end, or mine.” He took hold of her elbow and guided her to the cot. “Will you marry me, Genevieve?”
“Yes, please.” Her eyes fluttered shut before she wrenched them open again. “Fletcher,” she mumbled.
“Sleep, Jenny. I’ll watch him for you.”
He eased her down on the bedding and she succumbed to slumber.