Chapter 23
For two days Elias did not leave his room. He slept. He kept the curtains drawn. He ate nothing, and only drank the tea that Mary practically forced down his throat. He didn’t ask about Victoria. He couldn’t stand to hear about her.
He had come to believe that if his fate were different, Victoria was the woman for him. But, thanks to the curse of his parentage, he could do nothing about it. If there was such thing as soulmates, as true love, he’d found his. And any day now, she would marry his uncle.
The thought made him ill.
Finally, on the third day, Lord Reginald strode into the room, tearing the curtains back.
“Well!” he declared. “You have done it, you ass!”
Elias groaned, squinting against the sunlight. “Done what?”
“Victoria has left!”
Elias sat up. “What do you mean, left?”
“She accepted a proposal from a man by the name of Baron Edmund Darkmore.”
“No, she didn’t want to marry anyone but you.”
“Victoria didn’t want to marry me!” Lord Reginald exclaimed.
Elias pinched the bridge of his nose. “Of course she did. You were a safe option. She didn’t want to marry any man who might…”
“Force her to produce an heir?”
Elias muttered a response.
“You are too old to take over my knee, Elias, and you are lucky for that. What is wrong with you?” the old man pleaded. “Why did you drive away that bright, beautiful young woman who was quite obviously in love with you?”
“Your faculties abandon you in your advanced age, uncle. You should know why I rejected Victoria’s attention.”
“It was her love that you rejected, and being of full faculty, I cannot understand why.”
“If she knew the truth about me, she would have been disgusted!”
“She did know the truth about you! She knew every bit of the truth and she still loved you!”
“Perhaps I cared about her too. Perhaps I didn’t want to curse her with the same fate that befell my parents—or a worse one. There would always be the potential for something worse.”
“That’s life, Elias! There will always be a potential for bad things to happen. But there is potential for good as well, and I would like to believe that more often good things happen versus tragedy!”
“That is easy for you to say.”
“No, it is easy for you to say—as you hide in here brooding. You are acting like a child, and I have no one to blame but myself. I failed Arabella and Kaelan both. Had they lived, they’d have taught you to have a backbone. Your parents were brave, Elias, and you are acting like the most despicable coward!”
“I have to go on knowing that the woman I love is going to marry another man, that she will bear his child, that together, they will grow old?—”
“Because you are forcing her hand!”
“She could have married you!”
“You would have liked that, wouldn’t you? So you could watch each other both be miserable from across the dinner table. Well, the girl had too much pride for that.”
Elias rose from the bed and steadied himself on the fireplace mantle. “What would you have me do?”
“I have never been a romantic. I’ve loved but one woman, and that was many years ago. I am not the man to ask. Instead, I urge you to ask yourself what your mother would have done for Kaelan and what Kaelan would have done for her. If you ever need to know what love means, if you need a reference of sacrifice and commitment, you look to your parents who both lived and died for one another.”
“The point is, uncle—they died.”
“We all die one day, Elias, most of us alone. But not your parents.”
Lord Reginald stared across the room at Elias. Neither man spoke, there really was only one thing left to say. “She left about an hour ago by carriage. They go by His Majesty’s Highway—in case you want to do anything about it.”
“It’s too late, she’s gone.”
Lord Reginald stepped close to his nephew and gazed into his eyes. “She is gone and if you don’t do something, regret is going to haunt you for the rest of your life.”
Elias’s voice broke. “She won’t love me now that she’s seen the real me.”
“Victoria knew you were part troll, and her love did not wane.”
“I’m not talking about that. The way I’ve behaved…I was a monster in action.”
“Now, show her the man.”
A fire sparked in Elias’s chest.
“Save that girl, Elias! Stop her before she marries Baron Darkmore!”
“Shit…” Elias hurriedly forced his feet into boots and pulled a wrinkled shirt around his shoulders.
“I’ve had our fastest horse saddled. You can catch her.”
“A horse is waiting?”
“Yes!”
“But how did you know I would change my mind?”
“Because the people who love you have faith in you, nephew! Now go!”
Elias stumbled out the door, the jamb catching his elbow on the way out. It smarted and he might have left a dent in the wall, but he ran. He ran down the steps and out the front door. A few harried words were exchanged with the groomsman. He mounted the beast and broke into a full gallop.
A carriage could only go so fast on His Majesty’s Highway, but a horse could cover the same distance in a third of the time. Still, it felt like an eternity before he spotted the familiar white carriage.
When he got close enough to be heard, he shouted to the driver. “Ho there! Stop! Stop the carriage!”
The horses whinnied and came to a halt, dust clouded up around them.
“Is Miss Victoria inside?” he called.
Charlotte’s face came to the window. “My daughter is in no state for idle conversation, Mister Harrington.”
“I have no wish to be idle any longer.” Elias cleared his throat. “I have a confession. I have behaved abominably, and I know it. I can’t even claim ignorance. I am at fault, and I have been a coward. Your daughter, Victoria, showed me kindness and affection that I did not deserve.”
“Yes,” Charlotte agreed, her voice ringing clearly in the open air.
“I have come to beg forgiveness.”
“How does my daughter know that you will behave appropriately?”
Elias shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t know that I can. I fear that I will fail her. I am sure of it. But I beg only to try. If she will let me try to love her the way she deserves to be loved, perhaps I will get better at it with time?”
“That is hardly a promise,” Charlotte complained.
“No. It is the truth I have offered thus far. If you want promises, I can promise that I love Victoria with my entire body and soul. I am mad with love. I don’t know what to do with myself, how to act, or what to think. I’ve never been in such a tremulous state in all my life, and that is saying something. You want a promise? I promise that my love will not fade, that I will fight for Victoria, and I will sacrifice for her, if only she would be so kind as to grant me one last chance.”
“I will consult with my daughter.” Charlotte pulled the curtain shut, but it wasn’t a full second later that the door to the carriage burst open and Victoria practically threw herself out. Elias nearly tumbled off his horse trying to catch her.
Victoria was laughing and crying all at once. “You idiot,” she muttered, grabbing his face and pulling it to hers. Their kisses were wet with tears, but joyous. “I am so mad at you.”
“You should be,” Elias agreed. “I am mad at myself. But do you still love me? Will you still have me?”
“I want nothing else.”
Elias wrapped his arms around his woman and kissed her, this time, without any reservations.