Chapter Sixteen #2
He knew what she liked and he quickly brought her to arousal. Together they found the magic that always sealed the bond of their love.
Afterward, lying in his arms, Thea asked, “How can you forgive me so easily? I would have thought you’d be furious with me.”
“Harry,” he said.
“Harry what?” Thea asked, coming up on one elbow to look down at her husband. “When I last saw him, he was not well.”
He reached up and stroked her hair away from her face, and then with his fingers followed the line of her shoulder and down around her breast before dropping his hand and answering, “Harry is your strongest ally now. Margaret is your second strongest. They both wanted me to bring you home.”
She frowned. “Even Margaret? Harry put up a protest, but Margaret understood what I was doing.”
“I explained my feelings to them, the way I did to you. They worry for me. They are not pleased at the implications, but they have no choice but to accept them.”
“I pray we have long lives,” Thea said.
“I do as well,” he answered, pulling her closer. “But the love I have for you, Thea, will last forever. The heart is a shield, my love, and mine will keep us safe forever.”
Thea hadn’t ever believed life could be so easy or so good.
Their homecoming to London was everything she could have wished. Margaret hugged her, and even Harry acted happy, although Thea believed him more pleased to see her sons.
Harry was still the same. He drank heavily, womanized, and twice a month disappeared for a day or two.
But Thea couldn’t concern herself with his vices.
She wanted to enjoy every moment she had with Neal.
Daily, she prayed to God that they would escape the curse, and the prayers seemed to work. Neal was healthy.
Margaret and Thea became fast friends. They spent at least an hour each day in needlework.
Mirabel often joined them, although she disdained plying a needle.
She was most upset that Thea had taken off without a word to her, but one word of the baby and Mirabel freely forgave the transgression.
Margaret had decided that she would embroider the baby’s christening gown and it would be a garment that would be the envy of all who saw it.
Jonathan seemed to like Westminster very much, but Thea would often catch him talking earnestly to Neal. She wondered what they said, but she didn’t pry. Instead, she was thankful for Neal’s listening ear.
The dreams began.
Only this time was different.
Before, she and Neal had kept silent. Now they discussed those nightmares and kept a journal on them.
In the sharing of their dreams, they searched for clues that might help them defeat the curse.
They each had many dreams when they first reunited, but the frequency seemed to slow, and they took that as a good sign.
Perhaps they could beat the curse with prayer and bravery. Certainly her love for Neal had helped defeat her fear.
In fact, even Harry and Margaret began to lose their own anxiousness about the curse. The atmosphere in the house grew more cohesive, warm and nurturing. Every day was busy and fulfilling.
In mid-November, there was an evening drive of open vehicles through Hyde Park. The boys had been looking forward to participating, and Neal and Thea had thought it would be an enjoyable outing, since many of their friends’ families would be there.
They all bundled up against the chilled air and piled into Neal’s open curricle. Soon they were part of a moonlit procession, one that was almost wheel-to-wheel.
Neal drove the vehicle, but he let both Christopher and Jonathan have a turn at the reins. With a wool lap blanket wrapped around her legs and hot bricks at her feet, Thea enjoyed watching her sons learn how to drive.
In preparation for the drive, her husband had given her a blue velvet cape lined in fur, with a matching muff.
It was very stylish, and she quite enjoyed showing it off.
Soon she would retire from social occasions until her child was born, but tonight, she delighted in the fresh night air and the company of so many people enjoying the same.
Thea spied Mirabel in another vehicle and gaily waved at her.
Even more interesting, she caught sight of her brother Horace and his wife.
Since Thea had married, her path had not crossed his until this night.
Horace was staring right at her, a huge scowl on his face—and Thea discovered she had no animosity toward him.
Whatever grievances she’d once had over what she’d felt her brother should or should not have done had disappeared, vanquished by the happiness in her life.
Thea blew an air kiss at him, and he looked away. Instead of being offended, Thea laughed.
“Who is that, Mother?” Jonathan asked.
“Someone I used to know,” she answered. “But Lady Palmer is over there.” She indicated Mirabel’s direction, and he shouted for her attention, rising as he did so, that she might see him better.
However, at that moment, the horses pulling their curricle started to bolt. They bumped into the vehicle ahead of them and panicked in the way horses did sometimes.
Jonathan toppled forward and would have tumbled out of the curricle except for Thea’s reaching out and grabbing his coat in time.
“Neal,” she said to warn him something was wrong, but her husband had his hands full with the horses.
With a start, she realized that half the reins had dropped to the ground.
Neal leaned over the front of the curricle, reaching for the reins before something worse happened. Thea noticed that he only used his right hand, which was still holding the right reins. He kept his left hand tucked into his side.
He snatched up the loose reins and quickly brought the animals back under control.
Christopher grabbed Thea’s arm, his eyes wide. She still had her arms full of Jonathan, and she didn’t think she’d ever let him go.
If he’d fallen to the ground, he could have been hurt in the fall or found himself kicked by the horses.
“Don’t be afraid,” Thea said soothingly. “Everything is all right. Lyon has the horses under control.” She couldn’t help but add, “In the future, Christopher, you must be careful to always hold the reins tightly.” She assumed her youngest had been driving, since he’d been on Neal’s lap.
“I didn’t have the reins,” Christopher said. “Lyon had them.”
“You dropped them,” Thea asserted, keeping her voice low.
“No, Mother. Lyon dropped them.”
Thea frowned, then shrugged it off. The horses were under control, and that was all that mattered.
But she did notice that her husband was still favoring his left arm. He did most of his driving the rest of the night with his right hand, using his left only for a bit of balance. The driving had to have been a difficult task, considering the skill needed to maneuver their vehicle in such a crowd.
Come to think of it, the night before, she had noticed Neal massaging his left hand, circling the thumb. On an occasion or two, she’d caught him doing the same with his whole left arm.
Later that evening, after she’d put the children to bed, Thea sought out her husband. He had not yet come upstairs for bed. Indeed, for the last several weeks, he’d been working in his office late into the night.
Thea found him there.
He wasn’t working. He sat behind his desk, cradling his left arm against his body.
Seeing her at the door, he looked up and said, “It is starting.”
“What is?” she asked, wanting to pretend that she didn’t know.
“The curse, Thea.”
“Why do you say that?” she demanded.
“My arm is numb. I thought I’d injured a muscle, but it is not healing.
In fact, it is growing worse.” He frowned.
“I dropped the reins this evening. My hand froze, and I couldn’t move my fingers.
The horses startled and we could have caused an accident.
I hate to think what could have happened to Jonny. ”
Thea came around the desk to him. She knelt on the floor, taking his left hand into hers. “Such beautiful hands,” she whispered. “Strong hands.”
“Not much longer,” he said. “This is how it starts.”
“And then what happens?” she asked, and she found herself strangely unafraid. Holding his hand, a calmness settled over her. He was so alive, so vital. Nothing could harm him. She wouldn’t let it.
“The paralysis spreads. Father had a month. Some have up to a year, with the numbness growing and claiming every limb. Eventually, my heart will cease to work.”
The death he described was horrifying to her.
“Thea, hold me.”
She obeyed instantly. She threw her arms around him and held him tight. “I won’t let you go. You’ve done nothing to deserve this.”
“My hope is to live to see my son born,” Neal said.
She couldn’t bear thinking of his death. She denied it by kissing him. Their kiss grew heated, and Neal’s right hand drew her into his lap. His left arm came around her. The paralysis was gone—for now—and she silently vowed her love would keep it at bay.
He was hard for her. She remembered that first night, with its frenzied passion. She began unbuttoning his breeches. He needed this. She needed it.
Slowly he entered her. How she loved this man, and loved making love to him. He was the center of her world, and she told him with her body how much he meant to her.
They took their time. He kept smoothing his hand over the curve of her hip and across her slightly rounded belly.
What would she tell this son about his father? Or would it be necessary? Would not Jonathan and Christopher share their stories? Oh, yes, they would. Neither she nor her sons would let the memory of this wonderful man die.
Sweet, wondrous love. Once again, he took her to the very heights of pleasure. Every time he made love to her, he claimed more of her soul.
She could not let him go. She wouldn’t.
“We will fight this,” Thea vowed.
Neal’s answer was a sleepy, lazy smile.
He had given up. He’d accepted.
But she wouldn’t.
The heart is a shield.
Thea woke with Neal’s words in her mind.