Chapter Eight
“I choose ye, too. Always,” Ellis promised. They waited until the storm subsided and all signs of the phantom had disappeared.
“I cannot believe it is real,” Theodosia whispered in awe.
Ellis nodded. “I saw him this morn.”
Theodosia’s gaze snapped to his, but he shook his head.
“’Tis a story for another time. Since the phantom has appeared to both of us, I believe the only way to put an end to his curse is to confront him together.”
“What can we possibly do to stop him?”
“I am no’ certain, but we must try.” He reached out and held her hands. “You and I. Our future together lies ahead. I will not let anyone take that away from us again.”
Theodosia sniffled but nodded.
“What is amiss? What else has happened?”
She shrugged and swiped at her nose. “My father told me that he has found someone for me to marry. Only, it is true this time.” She sniffed again.
“I told him I would not. That I knew that he and mother hid our letters.” She brought her hand up to her cheek where she could still feel the sting of her father’s slap as if it had just happened. “He struck me and I ran.”
“What?” Ellis pulled Theodosia out of the cavern and studied her face and frowned as anger overcame him. There was a red handprint on her otherwise pale cheek. He would slap the man himself when he saw him.
“I will not marry that man, Ellis. I will only marry you.” She gathered him in a fierce embrace.
They parted, and he grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to meet his eyes. “We will wed. I promise ye that. But, first, we must break the curse of the ghost of Lover’s Crossing. Otherwise, these happenings will ne’er end. Understand?”
Her eyes brimmed with unshed tears, but she nodded.
“I love ye.”
Theodosia smiled. “I love you, too.”
They located Theodosia’s horse and rode to Lover’s Crossing, where the old execution was said to have happened. As they approached, the sky grew dark once again, the wind whipped around them, as a thick mist rose from the ground.
Within moments, the phantom appeared, menacing, but Ellis refused to back down. He dropped to his knees in front of the ghost.
“Take me if ye must. Spare her.”
Behind him, Theodosia cried out, refusing to let Ellis sacrifice himself. What didn’t she understand? He would sacrifice everything for her safety.
She dropped to her knees beside him, facing the phantom. She clasped Ellis’s hand. “No. We do this together,” she stated, before turning her gaze to the dark figure that looked to be hovering in front of them.
Ellis did the same.
For a long moment, it was a stand-off. No one said aught. No one moved as the thick mist enveloped them.
Finally, the ghost seemed to shimmer, to hesitate. “They finally chose each other.” Whispered on the wind around them.
The phantom lowered his sword, and Ellis stiffened, waiting for the blow that was sure to come, just as he had seen in his dream, but the blade dropped to the ground in front of them, and the ghost vanished in a burst of autumn leaves fluttering in the wind.
Ellis and Theodosia both gasped, not believing what they had just seen.
The graves behind where the ghost had formerly stood disappeared, along with his carriage and horse.
The sword shifted, and then vanished in a flash, leaving behind something small, glinting on the ground.
The mist cleared and they both looked around them. It was as if naught had happened. As if they hadn’t just broken the curse that held fear over Withbey for years.
Ellis stood and pulled Theodosia up to stand beside him.
He captured her mouth in his, kissing her deeply.
She melted into him and relished the feeling of her beside him, kenning that she would remain there.
She would be his wife. He would convince her parents that he would make Theodosia a proper husband.
That he could care for her as she needed.
And ensure her father never laid a hand on her again lest he wanted to deal with the dire consequences of doing so.
His anger with his daughter be damned. That didn’t give him the right to strike his daughter.
Theodosia nibbled at his lip, then the column of his neck. He groaned, his body roaring to life. He grasped her hands as they went for his cravat.
“Nay, no’ here.” He looked around. Currently, there was no one about, but someone could easily appear.
“Your tent, then?” she asked, catching her lip with her teeth as she looked up at him through lowered lashes.
“Aye.”
As they turned to leave, the sun glinted off something shiny on the ground where the ghost’s sword had fallen.
They slowly approached to investigate.
Theodosia clapped her hands. “My locket!” She bent and picked up the necklace that had disappeared the first night they had spent together in the tent. “And it is whole. Look.” She held it out to him.
His portrait was still tucked inside, along with the lock of his hair.
“The phantom took it?” She shivered, realizing that it really was the ghost in the tent with them at some point whilst they slept.
“Let us no’ think of that right now.” He took the locket from her hands and secured it around her neck, closing the clasp, and kissed her softly on the lips.
“I love ye, fore’er and always.”