Chapter 52
“Your Grace, I need you to come with me.”
The butler opened the door to my office in the castle and said that the local chief of police wanted to see me urgently. I told him to let the man in and didn’t think much of it. It isn’t the first time the police have come here when they know I’m in the duchy.
Issues related to land disputes are frequent, which is idiotic, considering that most residents now have their properties monitored by satellite. It’s perfectly possible to prove exactly where each piece of land begins and ends.
However, the tone with which the commissioner speaks to me now puts me completely on alert. Within seconds, I’m on my feet. “What’s happened?”
“The duchess was involved in an accident.”
“What? That’s impossible! Jazmina is at the castle.”
“Forgive me, Your Grace, but the duchess left about an hour ago,” the butler interrupts. “She wanted to surprise you.”
It feels as if an iron ball is twisting inside my stomach.
The word “accident” toys with my sanity.
“Where is she?” I ask the officer, almost lunging at him.
“She was taken to the hospital still conscious. She kept saying something about protecting the baby.”
“My wife is pregnant!” I shout, already running out of the room.
I couldn’t precisely recount what happened from the moment I received the news until my arrival at the hospital. It feels like a reenactment of what happened in Rheadur. As if life were showing me its fragility and how nothing is guaranteed.
Unlike the last time, when I didn’t really know what had happened but was sure that if she were gravely injured, Kaled would have told me immediately, I am completely in the dark now.
My heart pounds painfully inside my chest, and all I can think about is my beautiful wife, the mother of my child, hurt.
This time, there is no family member waiting for me, and I storm in like a hurricane. I am the hospital’s principal shareholder and don’t need authorization to see my wife.
I reach the reception desk. “Where is the duchess?”
The clerk swallows hard before answering, perhaps because of the madness she sees in my face. “In the intensive care unit, Your Grace.”
“And the doctor who treated her?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see the police chief who had been at my house approaching. He must have followed me.
“He is available only to your wife, duke.”
“Which floor?”
“First.”
I start toward the elevator.
“I think you need to know a few things first, Your Grace,” the officer says.
“No. What I need is to see my wife. We can talk about the rest afterward.”
I reach the floor, and there’s a doctor standing in the hallway. He recognizes me immediately.
“Where is my wife?” At this point, I don’t care about titles or formalities. I just need to see her.
“Sleeping, now. I sedated her because she was agitated.”
“Was she badly hurt?”
“She broke an arm.”
“Fuck that!” I roar. “And my child?”
“The baby appears to be fine, but we’ll run additional tests.”
“What happened?”
“The car she was in left the road and rolled over. If I may say so, she’s a warrior. She managed to free herself and move far enough away not to be hit.”
“Hit?”
“By the fire. The duchess’s car exploded.”
“That’s what I meant, Your Grace, when I said we needed to talk,” the officer says again, drawing my attention back while the doctor’s words echo in my head.
For the second time in a short span, I could have lost her, and now, because of me. I was the one who taught her how to drive.
Fuck.
I run both hands through my hair, though what I really want is to pull it out, my despair is so overwhelming.
“What I was trying to tell you, Your Grace, is that the accident involving Her Grace was caused intentionally.”
“What?”
“The duchess was forced off the road by another driver. Miss Elizabeth Boyd.”
My blood boils. Despite loving Jazmina, the hatred I’ve cultivated for years resurfaces easily inside me. “Where is that bitch? I’ll go to hell if I have to, but she’ll pay for what she did.”
“You won’t have to go to such lengths. I believe she’s already there.
Apparently, she wasn’t satisfied with forcing your wife off the road and wanted to see the damage she’d done, even though the car was already on fire.
The duchess had escaped, however, and Miss Boyd approached at the exact moment of the explosion. She died.”
The next day
I haven’t left her side.
I had a vague sense that at some point Athol came into the room and said Kaled was arriving in Scotland, but aside from that, every thought was for Jazmina and my child.
They are both fine, and I spent the last day thanking God for yet another miracle.
There is a difference between acceptance and desire.
When I learned she was pregnant in Rheadur, because I loved her so much, I accepted our child and the idea of having a family.
Now, after nearly losing everything, after seeing our world shattered, I understood that I don’t merely accept having children with her—I desire it with every drop of my blood.
Not only because it is Jazmina’s dream to bear descendants, but because it will be the crowning of our love.
My head rests on the gurney as I hold her hand, and when I feel a gentle caress in my hair, I think I’m dreaming.
“I thought I would never see you again. I was so afraid . . .”
I squeeze my eyes shut before looking at her. Jazmina was so brave. Even hurt—and I’m sure, terrified—she fought for her life and for our child’s.
I finally lift my head. “I wouldn’t survive without you,” I confess.
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s the truth. I may never have managed to show you what it meant for me to fall in love with you, princess.
I didn’t think it could happen because to love a woman, one must trust her, and until then, I thought that was only possible with my friends and Athol.
Loving you was like walking into a house in the dark.
Not the familiar kind—ours—where you’ve been many times and know where the furniture is, but one I’d never walked through before, risking bumping into something precious, breaking myself or you forever in the process. ”
A single tear falls from her eyes. “And still, you did it. You took all the risks.”
“I wish I could say it was a choice, but it wasn’t, Jazmina. You slipped under my skin in such a way that I could do nothing but let you stay.”
“You didn’t want to love me?”
“At first, no. But it took very little time for me to see that I couldn’t send you away. I love you. I need you in my life. This baby. And the children we may have.”
Her crying intensifies, and it isn’t the reaction I expected.
I stand and pull her into me, careful with her broken arm. “Did I say something wrong?”
“That woman tried to kill me because I’m carrying your child. She said we would have a mixed-race child and that you should marry someone of your own color.”
I feel my jaw clench. “She was crazy, love.”
“No. Deep down, it’s the same thing my people think. What have we done, Rodrick? Will we bring children into the world just for them to suffer?”
I hold her face. “Jazmina, prejudice exists everywhere, at all social levels. It isn’t your people or mine but the narrowminded mentality of some individuals. We can’t protect our children from everything, but we can teach them not to bow their heads to anyone.”
I pull her face to my chest and stroke her back. Gradually, she calms down.
“Wait—you said she was crazy?”
“Yes. She’s dead, and that’s a good thing, because by now I’d probably be in prison. I think I would have killed her with my own hands.”
“What happened?”
“We only know part of the story. The police were waiting for you to wake up so you could explain. The shopkeeper said you argued inside the grocery store. And then?”
“I think she followed me. I was feeling confident driving and was going slowly until her car appeared in the rearview mirror. She was going very fast, and I got scared, but until the last moment, I didn’t know it was her and was certain the driver would stop when she saw me.”
“But she didn’t.”
“No. The first impact scared me, but I managed to control the car. When she hit me again, I lost control. I don’t remember much, but at that moment I recalled the palace guard’s safety protocol.
As a member of the Royal Family, we always face risk of attack, so we receive training from a young age to get out of a vehicle as quickly as possible in the event of an accident. That’s what I did.”
My nerves jolt as I imagine the scene.
I pull her even closer to me, and we remain silent for a few minutes, simply feeling each other, and I thank the universe that she is whole.
“Tell me how she died,” she asks.
“Elizabeth apparently got out of her car to check whether you were . . . well, she didn’t see you escape, and she approached the burning vehicle. It exploded shortly afterward, killing her instantly.”
She pulls back to look at me, her eyes reflecting pure terror. “How could she hate me that much? I barely saw her twice! If you’d had a romantic relationship, I’d understand, but as far as I know, it was nothing more than a business transaction.”
“I wasn’t joking when I said she was crazy.”
“What?”
“Athol, in his research on potential brides, missed this. She had been hospitalized in an institution as a teenager due to mental instability. Added to that is the fact that her family is bankrupt. She probably saw me as a chance at a life of wealth.”
“And when you chose me, I became the target of her hatred.”
“I’m sorry, Jazmina.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Rodrick. It’s a horrible situation, and this may make me a bad person, but I’m relieved that it wasn’t our son or daughter who was the focus of so much hatred; it was because she was mentally unstable.”
“I’m not saying we’ll be free of prejudice, duchess, only that we won’t let it guide our lives.”
“I don’t care what they think. I care about our love and our family. I chased my dreams. I went against my culture and my people. I won’t let myself be defeated.”