11. Chapter 9
Caroline’s hands shook the entire carriage ride home.
Someone was doing this. It wasn’t plague, bad food, or a diseased animal.
Someone was biting people and making them sick.
The idea was beyond comprehension, but she read the look in Dr. Murnau’s eyes.
He believed a person was behind it as well.
Even though he didn’t know how to explain it. Yet.
As soon as the carriage rolled to a stop, Caroline jumped out of the carriage before Mr. Sylvester could open the door for her. He had greeted her so warmly when she left the hospital that she couldn’t stomach facing him again.
The sky was a beautiful blend of orange and pink as the sun settled beneath the horizon and she rushed into her home.
It was the time of day that made her stomach swoop, and it did so again; even with all of her suspicions, she was still excited to see Valeria.
Even after this afternoon, all she wanted was to make sure she was all right.
To see her smirk in that damned flimsy shift that Caroline so desperately tried to ignore, but sometimes she couldn’t help it and was rewarded with a lush expanse of olive skin that she would give anything to touch.
“Ah, Miss Blythe,” Mrs. Thomas said, “Dinner is ready whenever you are. Just ring the bell in the dining room when you’re ready.”
She sighed as she stopped where she was on the stairs.
Clearly, it was too much to ask to slink back to her room undetected.
It was cowardly, but she wanted to hide in her room until all of her problems were magically solved.
Her stomach rumbled, and she sighed, her body making her decision for her.
“Thank you, Mrs. Thomas,” she said as she walked down the stairs. “It has been quite the long day, so I’ll retire after dinner.”
The housekeeper nodded, “I’ll let Miss Lucy know.”
Luckily, she didn’t see anyone else on her way to the dining room. Guilt gnawed at her despite not knowing if Valeria was behind this mysterious illness. Because Valeria was only there because of her. And God help her, but Caroline didn’t know if she had the strength to send her away.
“You look exhausted.”
Caroline nearly choked on her stew when she looked up to see Valeria wrapped in a green velvet dressing gown.
“What are you doing here?” Caroline sputtered, coughing up a piece of onion that was going down the wrong pipe.
“I was just coming by to say good evening, but I’m glad I’m here so you won’t choke to death.”
“I wouldn’t have choked if you hadn’t been here.”
“While I do love taking credit for anything that leaves you breathless,” Valeria said as she sat across from her, her lips turning up into a sly grin, “I do find it worrying that you can so easily forget the mechanics of breathing. You would think it would be instinctual at this point.”
“I know how to breathe.” She had already coughed up the last of the soup, so she wasn’t forced to face the indignity of wheezing her defense. “You startled me because you slink around this house and only pop up when I least expect you.”
“You make it sound like you want to put a bell on me.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Caroline snapped. “If you had a bell, I might actually have a chance of finding you when I need to.”
“Were you looking for me again, cara?”
“Yes, and you weren’t in your room when I looked for you. Again.”
Valeria sighed. “As I told you, I like to take walks—”
“No,” Caroline interrupted, “I went to check on you this morning, and you weren’t in your room. Don’t tell me your sun sickness has suddenly been cured.”
Valeria’s eyes flashed before her sly mask slid back into place. “You’re so desperate to watch me sleep, but how would you feel if you woke up to me staring down on you?”
A tendril of fear snaked through her, but the heat that shot through her was stronger. Valeria was trying to scare her, and she knew she should be afraid of this threat—especially since she could be in actual danger—but she couldn’t find it in her to be truly scared of her.
“At least if you watched me sleep, I would know where you are.”
“Why does it matter what I do when you’re not around?”
“Why do you refuse to tell me?”
They glared at one another, both refusing to be the one who backed down. Caroline couldn’t afford to. Not when Valeria could be a threat to her household. To the very people she was supposed to protect.
Finally, Valeria huffed. “I slept in another guest room last night. I spent too long walking in the garden, and it was nearly dawn by the time I got inside, so I went into the closest room to hunker down for the day. I didn’t think it would be an issue.”
Caroline’s eyes flicked to her bowl where she absently stirred her spoon in the stew.
She felt better knowing that Valeria was here during the day.
She could get to town and back overnight, but it would be difficult—especially since she wasn’t familiar with the area.
Caroline only hoped she wasn’t grasping at any small chance that Valeria wasn’t the monster she was looking for.
“It must get quite boring being stuck in this house with only me to talk to.”
“I don’t mind because I happen to be quite fond of the company.”
Caroline blushed intensely before lowering her head and shoveling stew into her mouth so she didn’t have to think about what to say.
“I love that even after all of these years, I can still make you blush so fiercely,” Valeria continued.
“You’re not making me blush. I’m naturally red,” she snapped, her cheeks heating further despite her clunky lie.
Valeria laughed; it was a deeper sound than what lived in her memory, but it made her heart flutter all the same.
“You forget I am used to looking at you.”
“It’s been a lot of years since then.”
“And I could still draw you perfectly if I was blindfolded.” Valeria paused, her eyes shifting between Caroline’s. “I didn’t think it would be like this. It had been so many years, and after hearing you were engaged to Mr. Andrews, I was convinced you had changed.”
The stew felt like glass in Caroline’s throat as she swallowed.
She felt the same as she had always been, which felt like a bad thing next to someone as exciting as Valeria.
Even when she was barely older than a girl, she knew there was a gulf between them.
She was so worldly and daring while Caroline’s dreams had always been about staying at home.
“How did you think I had changed?”
“I thought maybe you had become someone who would be a good match for that man,” she said, nose wrinkling. “I’m glad to see you haven’t lowered yourself to his level, cara.”
Caroline stiffened. “He’s a good man. I could do far worse.”
“You could also do better.”
Caroline’s eyes fell to the table. She hated how small her remarks made her feel when she was only trying to do the best not just for herself, but for her family as well.
“I’m sorry, cara,” Valeria sighed. “You shouldn’t listen to most of what I say. I’ve always talked far too much.”
“That’s certainly something that hasn’t changed.” Caroline looked up with a small smile in an attempt to let her know there were no hard feelings. “You’ve changed, but the one thing that has remained the same is that you are just as dangerous as ever.”
The corners of Valeria’s mouth twitched. “You thought I was dangerous?”
“Do you remember when you took me to the grotto on the coast? You jumped from the top of the cliff without a second thought, without even a glance below to make sure you didn’t hit any of the numerous rocks at the bottom.”
“I’d been there enough times I knew generally where not to jump.”
“But I didn’t when I followed you over. I jumped in after you without another thought.”
Falling through the air had been exhilarating, but when she broke through the surface, the waves pushed her into a rock, scraping up her back.
It was only then she realized exactly how dangerous what they did was.
She was angry with Valeria for leading her into such danger, but more furious with herself for leaping before thinking.
She had been about to tell Valeria off for being so reckless when that wild, dangerous woman grabbed her and kissed her.
She tasted like salt water, freedom, and the sweetest realization of all of her dreams.
Nothing had ever been so dangerous to Caroline before or since.
* * *
“I don’t know what to do with you.”
Valeria sat at the foot of her bed. They weren’t touching, but were so close she felt the heat of her all the same.
“Why not?”
“I like you far more than I ever thought I would.”
Caroline’s eyes opened, and she was both disappointed and relieved to find herself alone. At least this dream had been chaste. It was a comfort she hadn’t dreamed of molten chocolate eyes looking down at her with such desire that it burned. Dreams like that were a complication.
Edgar’s unopened letter propped against her water glass on the nightstand mocked her. Her hand hovered over the scarlet seal many times, but she didn’t have the strength to break it.
While her fiancé had been away working to secure their future, she had been home with Valeria having urges, and she felt guilty.
If she were to think of anyone’s eyes—or lips—it should be Edgar’s, but those thoughts left her as uninspired as always each time she forced herself to think of them.
She grabbed the letter from her nightstand and ripped it open before she lost her nerve.
He wrote to her that The Count—no other name was given, just The Count—was quite accommodating.
That he wanted for nothing as he worked for him.
He told her to keep planning the wedding, and they would wed upon his return.
He urged her not to worry after him and that she would be in his thoughts and dreams. It was so unlike Edgar; he was typically quite sensible.
His handwriting was loopy and unkempt as opposed to his typical tidy script.